


Longest Night Break

by FortuneSnowman



Series: The Next Few Months [2]
Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Post-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-20 23:35:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 43,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13728402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FortuneSnowman/pseuds/FortuneSnowman
Summary: One month later, spending some time back home.





	1. 12/17, "Eh" Season

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well after a month or so of this thing kicking my ass, I finally have Longest Night Break done. It's been... different. But hopefully I'll keep these bits the same. Talking trivia about the writing process is easily my favorite part.
> 
> Speaking of, this story definitely features more characters than those listed. Almost everyone in the game, actually, but only the main four really have a great deal to contribute. Felt wrong to include EVERYONE and just clog up people's searches.

“Is it too late to return these things?” The door to the Ol’ Pickaxe slammed open, Mae stomping inside in woe over how completely secure and not falling on her ass she was.

“Yep”

“I hate them” Mae stomped up to the counter where Bea manned the register, leaning over it. “I said I hate them, Bea. I can’t feel my feet” Bea took a deep breath and stared blankly, while Mae laid her entire torso on the counter, stopping just short of crawling over. “My poor feet. Frozen. No blood in them at all. Just shriveled dried up bones where feet used to be”

“Just loosen the laces” Bea sighed.

“I miss my old boots, Bea” Mae rolled onto her back, staring at Bea upside down. She raised one leg into the air, showing off the boot which was now dripping snow onto the countertop.

Bea reached out, grabbed Mae’s raised leg, and gave it a quick push back onto the floor. “If I have to wipe down the counter because of you I’m throwing you out”

Mae grumbled while standing up straight again. “What’s up with you?”

“Nothing, sorry, just… tired today. Little cranky” Bea sighed.

“You’re _always_ tired. I don’t think you’ve been not tired in like years”

“Extra tired. Cold weather does that”

“Really?”

Bea shrugged. “I don’t really know. Sure feels like it”

“It’s only like four days until Longest Night, Bea. Where’s your holiday spirit?” Mae pumped a fist into the air, demonstrating.

Bea repeated the act, giving a half-assed “Wooooo” as she did.

Mae shook her head disapprovingly. “You’re being super boring today”

“You would not believe how much I want to sleep right now” Bea responded, accompanied by a yawn. Not even any snark? This _was_ serious.

“Well no sleeping today. We’re meeting up with the guys as soon as you’re done”

“I didn’t know we were having practice”

“I don’t think we are. Just like… friends being friends” Mae watched Bea’s face, expecting some semblance of a smile. Instead she saw sadness and exhaustion. Classic Bea. “Longest Night coming up, Bea, cmon! Wooooo!” Mae pumped her fist again.

“Wooooo”

“Okay seriously when do you get off?” Mas asked.

Bea stared at the register. “Wait” She said. Mae stood waiting, Bea stood staring, there was a lot of staring around not doing much. Fun fun fun.

“What are we-”

“Wait” She said again. Then a light ‘Ding!’ rang out from the register and Bea gave a sigh of relief. “Now”

* * *

“You’re definitely not sliding anymore”

“That’s not the point!” Mae cried, kicking some snow into the air as they walked. “It’s about the principle of the thing!”

Bea dug through her pocket for her dummy cigarette. “You don’t even know what that means” she said. They were about half a block away from the town’s Snack Falcon, wandering through the light snowfall.

“I have a pretty good idea! And that idea is that I should wear my old boots”

Bea rolled her eyes. “Then wear them! You still have them don’t you?” She said, mouth now occupied by the little plastic tube.

“Duh. But you got me these, so I’m trapped by the law of politeness to wear these boots I hate instead”

“Because you’ve been so polite about them so far” Bea stopped the two of them right outside the Snack Falcon’s doors.

“Thank you for noticing” Mae nodded, pushing open the door to let them both in. “Yooooo!” She cried, immediately coming to a halt at the sight of a pyramid of cups on the front counter carefully stacked halfway to the ceiling.

Gregg peeked an eye between the cracks of his creation. “Hey guys!” He cried, flailing arms hidden behind the pyramid. Mae and Bea both entered fully and in combined silent awe of the creation before them. “It’s been a slow day” Gregg said.

“Don’t stop on my account. I wanna see how high this goes” Mae answered.

Bea loudly cleared her throat. cleared her throat. “Maybe _do_ stop. We have to get Angus and get going, right?”

“Okay okay yeah stop, but if you’re gonna stop at least let me knock this down” Mae was instantly at the counterside, peeking between the cups at Gregg, who was peeking out. This might have been weird if it was anyone else in town, but Bea was just gonna let this happen. Much faster than trying and failing to stop it.

“Go for it dude. I get a better view if you do it anyway”

Mae backed away from the counter, crouched and ready to take off.

“Try not to hit your head” Bea warned.

Then Mae was off, running straight at the counter and launching herself over it through the pyramid head first like a wrecking ball. Also launching herself straight into Gregg, who hadn’t had the forethought to stand back.

Immediately the floor was littered with a hundred empty slurpee cups, a truly devastating wreckage that would take at least a few minutes to pick up.

And despite the Mae to the chest he’d just taken, Gregg was instantly joining her in cheering as the two of them emerged from the pile of cups behind the counter.

“How do you still have a job?” Bea asked under her breath.

“Huh?”

“I said are we picking Angus up next?” Bea answered, louder.

Gregg climbed up out of the cup pile, leaving Mae to fend for herself. “Oh Angus is getting us a table at the Clik Clak”

“We’re eating at the Clik Clak again?” Mae asked with a deep frown, still picking herself up.

Gregg shook his head, ‘tut tut tut’ing the whole way. “Dude, you have been seriously hating on the Clik Clak lately”

Mae groaned and pulled herself back to her feet. “I don’t hate it! It’s just-!”

The bell atop the Snack Falcon’s entrance rang, signaling the arrival of someone new.

The three already inside went silent, with both Mae and Gregg wide eyed at just who it was. About their age no doubt, not that you’d know it with the way his face was sort of… lopsided. Not enough to be obvious, but in the sort of uncanny valley kind of way. The kind where you couldn’t quite place what exactly was long until you really gave him a good look, and then you’d see that despite the efforts of any plastic surgeon, his face was undeniably _wrong_.

He walked with a heavy limp up to the counter, staring Mae in the eye. Then he looked at Gregg, and said “Coal Town.”

Gregg hastily grabbed the cigarette pack by that name from behind the counter and handed it over. The two went about the transaction in complete silence, Mae never taking her eye off the guy.

Finally done, he took one cigarette from the pack and began the process of lighting it as he turned and limped his way right back out.

The bell rang again, signaling his departure, and the three of them were stood in silence.

Bea was the first to break the ice. “Who was that? Haven’t seen you that quiet and awake at the same time in weeks” She asked.

“Oh my god!” Gregg shouted.

“What?”

“That was Andy!” He went on, pounding his fist against the counter.

“Andy? Like, Andy Cullen?” Bea asked

Mae had by now retreated to sitting behind the counter in her cup pile, staring wide-eyed at the floor while the two of them went on talking.

“How do you not know him?!”

“I never met the guy!”

“I can’t believe he’s still alive!”

Mae groaned to herself, covering her face with her hands.

“Of course he’s alive, she didn’t kill him”

“I haven’t seen him in like three years!”

“He probably just moved away. It’s Longest Night break after all, I bet he’s just back in town to… uh…” Bea trailed off.

Mae was quietly sitting, waiting for the conversation to be over when its two participants trailed off. She raised her head to find Gregg staring at her and Bea leaning over the counter to do the same.

“You okay?” Bea asked.

“Uuuuugh!” Mae loudly groaned, covering her face again.

Bea and Gregg stood awkwardly watching her and exchanging uncertain glances.

“So…” Gregg started. “Clik Clak?”

* * *

 

“Haven’t we already had this conversation?” Angus asked.

The quartet was seated at a booth in the Clik Clak, and had been for the past twenty minutes at least. During this time Mae had continually stayed clammed up while the others steadily

“It’s different now that we have a Taco Buck” Mae answered, gnawing on a lump of cheese still connected to the rest of the slice that was held a foot away from her mouth.

“Yeah that doesn’t mean anything” Bea mentioned.

“What, you don’t like tacos?” Gregg asked.

“You just don't go _out_ to eat tacos, bug. It’s like hot dogs” Angus pointed out.

Gregg forced down the ball of cheese and bread still in his mouth to more quickly be loud again. “Okay I’m on your side with the taco thing but I’d definitely go out to eat hot dogs!”

Bea shrugged. “Yeah but even Mae wouldn’t go out to get tacos”

“It’s not my fault they deliver! It’s convenient!” Mae exclaimed.

“And besides, that’s not the point” Gregg said. “I think it’s the principle of the thing”

Bea sighed. “Oh my god, how long have you two known each other that neither of you know what that means?”

Gregg looked over at Mae for an answer, who had become unresponsive as she took more of her pizza slice into her mouth to gnaw on. Her _first_ pizza slice, when the others had finished their second each.

“Dude you okay?” He asked.

“Hrm?” Mae looked up from the table, mouth full. “Yrr mm rrr rnnm-”

“Okay, swallow before you keep talking” Bea interrupted.

“Yrr nnr mr mmm!” Mae mumbled through her pizza. Then she swallowed, and repeated “I said you’re not my mom, Bea!”

“And wipe off your chin” Bea handed over a napkin, which Mae readily took to do so.

Gregg leaned over into Angus, whispering as loudly as possible “Dude, Andy stopped by the Falcon today!”

Angus’s ears perked up. “Andy Cullen? Oh yeah, I heard he was spending the week back in town”

Mae groaned again, going back to gnawing on her pizza slice and looking ever so slightly frustrated.

“Yeah he came in earlier and was super weird” Gregg continued.

“Weird how?” Angus asked.

Bea shrugged. “He wasn’t really weird. Just bought some cigarettes and left. Shitty brand though”

“Did he see Mae?” He asked.

“Yeah but he didn’t say anything. Like a weirdo” Gregg said, waving his uneaten crust as he spoke.

“Huh” Angus shrugged. “Maybe he’s over it”

“It _did_ happen like what, six years ago?” Bea asked.

Mae loudly groaned yet again, resting her head on the table. “Can we not talk about this?”

“Sure” Angus conceded the point, much to Mae’s appreciation. “Water under the bridge”

“You’re not a little bit curious?” Gregg asked despite that.

“Gregg-” Bea started.

“Sorry!” Gregg quickly covered himself. “I’ll drop it if we’re gonna drop it. I’m just saying, you gotta wonder right?”

“Then let’s drop it! I’m not curious, and I don’t care!” Mae cried out with another groan.

Silence fell to the table, Gregg looking guilty. Which in turn made Mae look guilty. Which in turn made Gregg look even guiltier.

“Sorry” he said.

“Nah, I’m sorry” she said back.

“No dude, I’m sorry”

“Sorry”

“Sorry”

“Sorry”

Bea sighed, watching the exchange. “I think they’re stuck in a loop” she whispered to Angus, who quietly nodded but gave no attempt to stop them. It was kind of sweet in its own really dumb way.

Soon enough, the two went silent, content that neither was really more sorry than the other. Mae pushed her last uneaten pizza slice over to Bea and stood up from the booth, stretching out.

“You’re not gonna finish?” Bea asked.

“You can have it” Mae said, inbetween cracking her neck from side to side. “I’m not really feeling it tonight”

She gave only a quick wave and started wandering towards the door. Didn’t leave any money for the pizza either but that was kind of expected at this point.

“Whatever you say” Bea mumbled. Then she thought it over, and quickly added “Hey! Message me later if you need to talk or… yeah”

Mae looked back if only to wave again, then disappeared out the Clik Clak’s front door.

“What was that about?” Angus asked with a raised eyebrow.

Bea shrugged and pushed her new pizza slice over to Gregg for him to have instead. “Probably nothing”

“No like, with you” Angus clarified.

“Also nothing” Bea crossed her arms and slumped forward on the table. Closing herself off did nothing to dissuade the questioning looks that Angus and Gregg were giving her, so she sighed loudly, shutting her eyes. “She asked me out” Bea admitted.

Instantly a half-wheeze, half-high pitched squeal emerged from Gregg, who has squeezing both his cheeks in to hide his enormous grin.

“Really? When did this happen?” Angus asked.

Gregg squealed again, looking from Bea to Angus and back again in unbridled excitement. He looked to Angus, pointed at Bea, then squealed again.

“Like a month ago? A little less?” Bea answered, trying her hardest to ignore Gregg.

Gregg squealed once more, pounding his hands on the table until all of his excitement was thoroughly spent.

“Really?” Angus asked. “Why didn’t we hear about this?”

Bea shrugged. “I don’t know. It didn’t come up I guess”

“Huh. I didn’t know you… uh…” Angus trailed off, tapping his fingers on the table uncomfortably.

Gregg, finally catching his breath, asked “She what?”

“Yeah. Me neither” Bea answered Angus, again ignoring Gregg.

“She what?!”

“Don’t worry about it, bug. Congratulations to you both” Angus nodded with a smile.

And well, two out of three people at that table were happy enough, Gregg looking between them both.

“Someone tell me what’s going on!” He cried.

* * *

“Helloooooooo?” Mae called out to the empty foyer.

She shut the church doors behind her, wandering up to the front desk. No Mom here. Her car hadn’t been outside so that wasn’t really much of a surprise, but part of Mae was still hoping otherwise.

Mae took only a quick peek into the back room filled with books before concluding that no, even if she was slacking then Mom definitely wasn’t here today. Or like… anymore at least. It’d already gotten dark, so that really shouldn’t have been much of a surprise.

She poked her head through the door of the main chapel next, and was as usual completely unsurprised to find it devoid of all life. Well, most of all life, Pastor K was seated on the chapel stairs at the far end of the room, an open book in her lap.

Well as long as she was already here…

Mae squeezed through the door and jogged over, stopping as Pastor K raised her head. “Hello Mae”

“Hey Pastor K. Have you seen my mom around?” Mae asked.

“I think she just left, actually. Might be at your home if you haven’t already checked”

Mae shrugged. “Yeah, I kinda figured”

“Everything alright? You look worried”

“Eeeeeeh” Mae mumbled out, completely unable to voice her thoughts at the moment.

“Same old same old?” Pastor K asked.

Mae shrugged again. “I guess? I mean when you put it that way”

“Hmm” Pastor K shut her book and leaned forward expectantly. “Well if you want to talk, that’s what I’m here for”

“Mm” Mae stared, some mental debate going on in her head.

“Everything okay?” Pastor K asked.

“I’m thinking about it”

“Take your time”

And Mae did. Take her time that is. She must’ve been standing there for at least a full minute before she finally admitted “I saw Andy at the Snack Falcon today”

“Ah, Andy” Pastor K confirmed.

Mae nodded. “Yep”

They stood in silence again, before Pastor K admitted “I don't know who that is”

Mae lowered her eyes and sighed. Of course, everyone in this town knew every detail about what happened until she actually needed them to. “Andy Cullen, the kid I had my incident with in high school”

“Oh. That must have been…”

“Awkward?”

“That’s a word for it, sure” Pastor K nodded, tapping her foot lightly.

She didn’t actually seem to have much to say though, much to Mae’s annoyance. “So like, what do I do?”

“Hmm” Karen thought it over a moment. “I’m not sure. Sounds like it’s up to you”

“That’s not even real advice!” Mae cried.

“Well the way I see it, you’re worrying because you want to do something to make it better, right?” Pastor K asked. Mae gave a silent nod. “Well, you could, but it’s been years. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to just leave it in the past”

“So like… you’re saying I shouldn’t worry either way?” Mae asked.

“I’m saying I don’t think it’d make you less of a good person if you wanted to leave things alone. And you’d be a very strong person if you tried to make things better anyway” Pastor K explained. “That’s all”

Mae stared at the floor a few awkward moments. “Huh”

“That help?”

“Yeah, sorta” Mae raised her head and gave a quick wave. “I’m gonna go”

Pastor K returned the wave. “Have a good evening, Mae” she said, before opening her book again and retreating back into its pages.

Mae turned and hurried out. Running always helped sort her thoughts, and she was eager to get home anyway.

* * *

 Or at least, that had been the plan. In reality, Mae had completely gotten lost. In her own thoughts this time, thankfully. So much so that she’d run down the sidewalk straight past home, trying to sort her head together.

Andy. Andy Andy Andy. An-dy. Ahn-day. Undoy. And deed.

Andy.

Six years ago the last thing she’d wanted was to see him again. Well to be fair, that was the last thing she wanted right now, but it was conflicted. Like… he was here. In town. For one week. Longest Night week of all weeks. Here to ruin her holiday.

Yeah, there was nothing wrong with wanting to just ignore him. In a week he’d be gone and she’d be back to mooching off Bea and stealing things with Gregg and talking Demontower with Angus and doing whatever the hell Germ wanted to do with Germ. And then he’d be gone, and she’d never have to think about Andy Cullen again and how she totally ruined his teenage years and potentially his life from the looks of things.

Yeah. Just don’t think about that.

Mae was yanked from her thoughts as her foot caught on the slightly raised section of road when she started running on the bridge out of Possum Springs. Naturally she immediately ate shit against the snow covered pavement, which if nothing else served as a good wake up call. Mae dragged herself back up and shook her head off, ear twitching. Then as she made the mental decision to turn back and head home, her eye spotted light from far below the bridge, in the ravine. A flashlight.

Hm. Germ.

A minute later, Mae was stumbling down the rockface and arriving safely at the bottom, where an old sewage drain waited wide open. Inside was Germ, who had no doubt heard her come down but hadn’t bothered to look. He instead had one of those huge clunky yellow flashlights and was shining it into the tunnel at an ever familiar opossum.

“Hey Germ” she said, wandering in.

“Hey Mae” he answered, tucking the flashlight under his arm for a second to open up a potato chip bag in his other hand.

“Here to check on Rabies?” She asked, taking a seat on a neatly placed rock sitting off to the side.

“Wait”

Germ opened up the bag nice and wide, then set it down and stepped away, keeping his light shining on it.

Rabies skittered forward, immediately sticking his entire head in the chip bag and bringing a grin to Mae’s face.

… yeah. She could use this tonight. Nothing like feeding vermin to take your mind off things.

“Waaaait foooor iiiit…” Germ said again.

“For what?” Mae asked, squinting into the darkness of the tunnel. “Oh my god... is that…” Mae’s eyed snapped wide open as a second opossum emerged from the shadows.

It scurried over beside Rabies, lightly nipping at him before joining in on scarfing down the chips from Germ’s offering.

Germ nodded. “Yeah I think it’s his wife”

Mae was instantly beaming at the sight. This was easily the best thing she’d seen in a week. “Did you name his wife too?”

“Nah. Rabies needed his name. Wouldn’t be right to name his wife. Like, I couldn’t just come along and name you”

“Huh. I could see that”

The two of them then sat in silence watching the two opossums gorge themselves on brand name potato chips. The good stuff. Suddenly Mae was wishing she’d finished eating back at the Clik Clak. She was also inwardly questioning just how good of a father figure Germ was being to his children here. Chips all the time could _not_ be healthy.

“You know, I used to grab pretzels from the Trolleyside News in town for my rats” Mae suggested.

Germ shook his head. “Rabies just likes the chips and ice cream”

“What about for when he has babies? Now that he’s married and all” She asked.

“That’s what the ice cream’s for. Can’t give them solid foods I think”

Mae tilted her head to the side. “Oh yeah, that makes sense” Huh. Maybe Germ _did_ have this whole parenting thing down. And here was Mae having not called her babies in weeks and judging him. For shame. “So you’re just gonna take care of these two and their babies forever?”

Germ shrugged. “Eh. As long as they keep coming back”

That was fair enough. Rabies looked up from his food at Mae, staring wide eyed. He gave a loud half-honking, half-growling, all gurgling noise. Mae opened her mouth wide and returned the favor as accurately as she could manage.

Rabies’ mate raised her head and joined in, and within another second or two all three were making the same ungodly noise with Germ just quietly watching.

Then it ended, the opossums went back to eating, and Mae was back to beaming.

“Awesome” she concluded. She hopped up from her seat. “Thanks for… yeah. I’m gonna go” she waved to Germ.

“Yep” He answered, still watching his opossums dig through their food.

“See ya Jeremy”

“See ya Margaret”

Yeah. Quit worrying, Margaret. You’ve got this. Nothing’s really changed, everyone’s still here. Just deal with this like with everything else.

Mae climbed her way back up and out of the ravine, feeling newly invigorated. Nothing like Germ to completely reset your head after a weird day.

* * *

 As always, the front door to the Borowski household was left unlocked purely for Mae’s return. It probably would’ve freaked some people out, but then again Stan and Candy had little to worry about considering the person most likely to break into the house already lived there.

The kitchen was devoid of life, as was the usual what with her mom always heading to bed early. And also as was the usual, the living room TV was on with a plump older man sitting on the couch with an adorable face.

Mae wandered in, leaning on the couch armrest. “Yo Dadders”

Mae’s dad turned down the TV volume before addressing her. “Hey there Kitten. How’d your day go?”

“Eh” Mae said.

“Well it’s ‘Eh’ season alright” her dad confirmed, nodding quietly to himself.

“I thought it was the holiday season”

Stan mentally weighed this. “Well it depends. When you’re young, it’s holiday season. When you’re older and working, the holidays are ‘Eh’ season. Looks like you’re just getting old”

Mae shook her head, hands on hips, now in pure sass mode. “Not on your life!”

Stan chuckled under his breath. “You’ll like being old. We get to drive anywhere we want, buy anything we want…”

Mae rolled her eyes. “Preach to anyone you want…”

“Exactly!” Her dad nodded, smirking.

Mae groaned. “I’m going to bed!” She sad, arms raised.

“Hehe. Goodnight, Kitten” her dad chuckled, turning up the TV’s volume again.

Within seconds Mae was up in her safe haven: the attic. A few seconds more and her new horrible boots were off, stacked neatly under her bed so as not to risk destroying them _quite_ yet. Her old ones were both still laying uncared for next to her mirror, because she _respected_ those. Mae nodded to herself. “Respect”

Then she crawled under the covers and opened up her laptop. Immediately three lights in her messenger were set to green, and naturally Gregg was the first to notice her own.

**G:** hey duders. sry about dinner

**M:** its cool. i saw germ so im p much back at 0

**G:** if germ puts u at 0 wuts andy do?

**M:** andys like -100

**G:** r u saying im not +100 at lest?

**M:** dude you know im bad at math

**G:** dude

**M:** yea?

**G:** dude

**M:** im all ears

**G:** U HOOKD UP W/ BEA?!!

**M:** oh yea haha i did do that

**G** : y didn u tell me?????

**M:** dunno. you never asked

**G:** who else r u secretly dating?

**M:** angus. its been goign on for a long time

**G:** i always knew itd come to this

**G:** i get him on weekdays and u can have holdiays

**M:** deal

**M:** k seriously tho im tired

**G:** same. nite dude!!

Gregg’s status went from green to white, and Mae mentally checked off another obligation for the day. Not that talking to Gregg wasn’t a joy either. It was an obligation because she wanted it to be. Nobody gives Mae Borowski a job but Mae Borowski.

Mae opened up a chat with next person on her list.

**M:** sup kid

**L:** Sup adult.

**M:** do anything cool today?

**L:** The usual. Jelly.

**M:** is the jelly for a prop?

**L:** I just like jelly.

**L:** I mean it’s for a prop but also I just like jelly.

**M:** sweet. when are you fonna teach me how to make these props?

**L:** You’re already gonna be my first victim. I can’t give away all my secrets.

**M:** fine fine

**L:** Hey, I heard Andy Cullen’s back in town.

**M:** okay great talking to you night lori

**L:** Night Killer.

Mae shut her laptop, sighing. That kid was lucky that she was freaking awesome.

Then Mae opened her laptop back up, taking a deep breath. One more, then bed.

**M:** XOXOXOXO

**B:** Are you having a stroke?

**M:** rude

**B:** How you feeling? Sorry about earlier.

**M:** yea its fine. just thinkin about sfudd

**M:** stuff*

**B:** Well just keep me posted. Don’t do anything stupid.

**M:** you have like no faith in me

**M:** i think im gonna try to fix things

**B:** I just said don’t do anything stupid.

**M:** funny

**B:** Sorry, that was funnier in my head.

**B:** It’s late. I’m gonna get some sleep for work tomorrow.

**M:** night beebee

**B:** Goodnight.

Hmm. Yeah well, Bea was always like that. Mae shut the laptop and rolled over to face the wall, tightening the blanket around her until she was naught but a fluffy ball of warm.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow she’d fix everything. Mae held that thought in her mind as she drifted off to sleep to the sound of a violin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The inclusion of Andy was actually something I wanted to do in The Perfect Storm, but it felt horribly coincidental to say the least. But as is the usual, I just stuffed the idea away for future use. I knew back then that I wanted to do a sequel, even before I finished the first story. Didn't know what the main premise would be though, so eventually the two ideas just sorta blended together and I got this. Gotta say, I definitely feel like this story has a lot more lulls in it than The Perfect Storm, but the added length also gave me an excuse for more actual fun, interesting scenes. YMMV I guess. Probably goes without saying then that this story is a lot longer.


	2. 12/18, Genuinely Good Person

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a question. Why do I make these stories in a chapter format if I upload them all at once?
> 
> Chapters flow better. They give clear stopping points. They reset the mood. That and I'm just stingy and I like the number 5.
> 
> Here's another, if I'm going to make it a chapter format, why don't I upload them as they're completed?
> 
> Because if I write something as I had in this chapter, and then later decide it doesn't come out how I wanted and want to completely redo the conversation so as to have the same ending but a different path to get to it, then it creates an awkward situation. Have to staple on a "Hey I screwed up go reread line 420 in the last chapter" onto a later one. I like having things done and properly set. It's how The Perfect Storm kept referencing its earlier chapters. I'd decide what I wanted later on, then add it into an earlier chapter so as to have a proper leadup.

Sun shining in through the windows, a gentle frost on the glass, a wonderland of white waiting just outside…

Perfect weather to just roll over and never leave bed.

No. Come on, get up. You’ve got stuff to do. Stuff and things. Important things too, not the usual important things but real important things.

Mae cracked her eyes open, looking bleary around her room. She pulled herself up, stretched and yawned, scratched her ass… then tucked herself back under the covers. Yeah. She had all day. Important things could wait. Besides, she should be completely comfortable first right?

She nodded to herself, pleased with this decision. Then she rolled over to get back to sleep and immediately fell out of bed into a heap of blankets and panicking cat person.

“I’m up I’m up!” She yelled to no one in particular, emerging from the pile.

Right. Okay. Start your day Miss Borowski. Ms. Borowski. You can legally call yourself that now I think.

First things first, computer, naturally. And as is the usual it’s mid-day and all of Mae’s friends had by this point left home, leaving only a couple messages for whenever she woke.

 **G:** hey duders

 **G:** christine was mad we left the falcon a wrek

 **G:** mite not wanna come by til i fnish cleaning up

 **G:** ps: band practice bring ur a+++ game

 **G:** ppss: angus says congrats for u n bea

 **G:** ppssss: i said the same thing but u alredy new that

 **G:** psssssssss: bye!

Oh right, yeah. Sometimes Mae forgot that Gregg really did have a boss, considering she’d never actually seen this Christine woman. And that Gregg just did whatever anyway. Maybe she could find a job like that and just be her own boss.

 **B:** Hey.

 **B:** At the Pickaxe. You know the drill.

 **B:** Good luck with the whole Andy thing.

 **B:** Later.

Welp, only one more thing to do before she left. Mae clicked on Sharkle, which gave a deep guffaw. Again, another guffaw. She mashed her finger to click on it as fast as she could, grinning the whole while.

Okay no seriously let’s go.

Mae made it halfway to the ground floor when her mom’s voice called from the kitchen. “Hey honey?”

“Yeah?” She yelled back.

“Come see me before you leave, sweetie”

Now that she thought of it, Mae wasn’t sure if she’d planned to stop in to talk today. She did pretty much every day, but to be fair she was a little distracted. It wouldn’t be too unlike like her to just walk outside without even thinking about it.

Just like how Mae hadn’t even realized she was hopping up onto the kitchen counter until this exact moment. “Hey mom” she said.

Candy was as usual looking through a new book, this one called Trapped In A Rock if the front cover was to be believed. “Hey sweetie. Sleep okay?”

Mae shrugged. “I haven’t felt half dead in a while, so yeah. Pretty okay”

“Can’t ask for much more than that” Candy nodded knowingly. Then she buried her head back in her book. Well, sort of. Her eyes weren’t actually moving along the pages.

“What’s wrong?” Mae asked.

Candy took a deep breath and set her book down. “So honey, I don’t want to worry you…”

“Andy Cullen’s back in town, yeah I heard” Mae rolled her eyes.

Candy nodded with a slight smile. “Well look at you, my little detective”

Mae shrugged. Not like _everyone_ hadn’t heard already. Apparently something about him having come back was more interesting than when he’d lived here in the first place. “Gonna tell me to leave him alone?”

Candy contemplated it for a moment. “It’s been a long time, honey. I just think maybe you should give him a wide berth if you see him”

“Yeah, that makes sense. I wanted to go stop by and say sorry today” Mae explained. Candy was still staring at her, not saying anything on the matter. “Mom?”

“Sweetie. Just be careful alright?” Candy said.

“Mom”

“It sounds like your heart’s in the right place...”

“Mom”

“It’s just that we ran into a lot of trouble smoothing things over…”

“Mom”

“It’s a touchy subject, and I won’t tell you what you’re doing is wrong...”

“Mom. It’ll be fine”

Candy took a deep breath, settling her nerves. “Okay. Just try not to be too disappointed if things don’t turn out perfectly, okay?” She said, picking her book back up.

Mae smiled again. “Oh that’s okay, I’m used to things being disappointing”

“That’s the spirit!” Her Mom cheered.

Mae hopped down from the counter. “I’m gonna go”

“Have a nice day, sweetie” Candy nodded, settling back into her book.

Mae gave a quick wave and without another word was running out the door. Right, disappointing. She was good with disappointing. So maybe it’d all come back around and only be disappointing if it wasn’t disappointing.

The instant she was outside though she was hit with that very same disappointment she’d been thinking about. It was snowing _again_. Not that it would have been safe to go climbing anyway, but more snow definitely wasn’t going to help.

Maybe that’s a consequence of stopping people from getting fed to an elder god. That elder god then just makes it snow a lot. Not exactly the world ending catastrophe Mae was expecting but for a punishment so petty it still knew how to hit Mae right where it hurt most. Next thing she knew they’d take away the WiFi.

At the base of the hill, Mae stopped on an ever familiar stoop with an ever familiar bear on it, wearing a Not so familiar expression of exhaustion. “Hey Selmers”

Selmers raised her head, looking like she’d barely noticed Mae approaching. “Hey Mae, long time no see”

“That’s what I was thinking. You haven’t been around at all lately”

Selmers shrugged. “Eh. Finally landed that job down at the Ham Panther. Been busier lately”

“My dad works there too if you need any help” Mae offered. Like, he only worked at the deli counter but he’d been there a while. He probably knew everything about the store.

Selmers shrugged. “Haven’t seen him. We must be in different sections”

“Oh. Alright” Mae said. And waited. And Selmers waited. Then they waited some more, Mae looking on expectantly.

Selmers sighed. “New poem?”

And then Mae was grinning. “Girl you know my answer”

Selmers thought it over a moment, and mumbled out “Longest Night, Longest Night, sky so dark, but stars so bright”

And… that was it. And Mae was still stuck there staring, now looking terribly disappointed. “What?” Selma asked.

“I’ve heard this one before!” Mae cried.

Selmers shrugged. “Caught me. It’s been busy lately”

“You’re gonna start slipping. This job is gonna steal your talent from you” Mae shook her head disapprovingly.

She didn’t hold it against Selmers, no. It was the Ham Panther’s fault. Selmers was infallible as far as her poetry was concerned.

Selmers took a deep breath and sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. Tell you what, I’ll try to get back into the swing of things for next time”

“That’s the spirit. And don’t worry about it, I think you still get points for that last one being holiday themed” Mae nodded quietly. Whatever powers that be would surely forgive this transgression.

“I’ll take ‘em. Have a good one, Mae”

“See ya around” Mae waved again, then hurried off up the hillside.

Her new boots were actually keeping her secure and not sliding back down to the bottom with every other step in the snow. Mae took a moment of silence to curse their existence. Even if they did fit better now that she loosened the laces. It wasn’t the same.

Mae found herself with her head in the clouds, walking through town. Literally, staring upwards. Lori no longer spent her afternoons on the rooftops ever since the snow had made them into death traps. Well, not often anyway. The whole death trap thing kind of appealed to her. Mae had tried continuing her climbing around too, but her wrist having not healed until just last week kind of ruined her attempts.

So where _did_ Lori spend her time now? Maybe Mae should actually ask that some time over messenger. Like, the answer was probably just the train tracks, but that was too far out to just go and check on a hunch. It’d take at _least_ twenty minutes.

“Hold that thought, Mae” she said to herself, pushing the front door of the Ol’ Pickaxe open.

“Feel free to revel at my arrival!” She announced to the interior, arms raised.

The person Bea was helping at the counter, as well as Bea herself, were now staring at the mostly crazy person who’d just entered.

Well they could judge all they want. Own it. Own it, Borowski. Mae nodded to herself, keeping her arms raised.

Bea hurriedly finished up the transaction and handed a plastic bag off to her customer, wishing him to have a nice day. He was out the immediately after, never taking his eyes off Mae. Yeah yeah, judgy.

Mae wandered up to the counter with arms still raised. “Revel” She repeated.

“Yo. What’s up?” Bea asked.

Mae let her arms fall to her sides. “You are literally zero fun. Like, negative one fun”

“I take pride in breaking my old records” Bea remarked, smirking through her tired expression.

That was a good way to look at it. Always aim to reach new lows when you can’t reach new heights. Mae was almost proud. “Can you drive me to Andy’s?” She asked.

Bea had a double take at the request. “Seriously? You said you wanted to fix this”

Mae shrugged. “I do, but it’s like all the way across town and you have a car”

“No offense but this isn’t really something I want to get involved in” Bea shook her head, watching the door and hoping someone else would come in to steal her attention away.

“Please?” Mae asked.

Bea sighed and dropped her gaze to the cash register in front of her.

“Just drive me!” Mae cried, holding herself up on the counter by her arms. “You can wait in the car and everything, I’ll be really quick!”

“Mae, I’m working now” Bea groaned. Working for another hour at that.

Mae settled in, leaning in the counter. “That’s okay, I can wait” she said.

And so she stood there. Staring at Bea. Not saying anything, not even being annoying, just… staring. And every time Bea glanced back over, Mae was still standing there staring, waiting. Patiently.

No one coming to the door, no emergencies in the back, nothing to do at the counter but stand here and be judged… Bea looked to the clock again.

Fifty-nine minutes until she was done.

Bea sighed, dug her hand through her pocket, and tossed Mae her keys. “Here. Go warm up the car”

“Yes!” Mae yelled, immediately running back out the front door.

“Do **not** move it out of park!” Bea yelled after her. The things she did for this stupid little girl.

This better have been important. It better have been, and yet Bea found herself also hoping it wasn’t. Thinking about it only gave a bad feeling. Bea locked up the register and turned the sign on the door to Closed on her way out.

* * *

Rarely did Bea ever find herself wishing Mae was _more_ excited, but here they were. Back in their usual car seats, quietly rumbling through town, with Mae having gradually grown quieter and quieter the closer they came to their destination.

It wasn’t exactly what you’d call a bad neighborhood, but at a first glance one could see why some would think the Borowski's lived in the relics neighborhood. This one wasn’t quite a mess, wasn’t quite trashed, wasn’t quite run down, but it was definitely out of the way. And for some reason, it gave more of a feeling that one should really not be spending their time here.

“Wait wait stop” Mae said suddenly.

Bea pulled the car over and parked on the side of the road. “We’re still like a block away”

“Yeah, let’s just like…” Mae said, staring out the window.

Bea waited. She checked the car’s clock, and looked over to Mae again. She wanted to be annoyed. Hell, she _was_ annoyed. And yet...

“Can we come back another time?” Mae asked, looking over.

“No effing way. I skipped an hour of work for this”

“I just, like, maybe today isn’t the best. Like like like maybe… just maybe…” Mae stammered, not quite certain where her thoughts were going.

And as she watched Mae gradually kill her own confidence, Bea pinched the bridge of her… yeah. And leaned forward against the wheel.

She spoke up, silencing Mae’s thoughts. “Mae. I get it. It’s awkward” Bea said. Mae went quiet, thinking it over. “You want to apologize, right?” She asked.

“Yeah”

“Then that’s all you have to do. Knock on the door, say sorry, and whatever happens happens. You’ve got this”

Mae took in a deep, obnoxiously loud gasp of air to calm her nerves. “Right. Okay” she said, affirming herself. She looked about ready to get out of the car for a moment, then glanced back over to Bea. “Uh-”

“I’ll be _right_ here” Bea confirmed, nodding assuredly. “Go on”

Mae took a deep breath, nodded to herself, and stepped out the car. Bea grabbed her laptop from the back seat and set it on her lap. No doubt her father would have some complaints about her work ethic today, if not at home then definitely over email…

Mae almost turned back twice as she approached the Cullen house. Andy had left home years ago, but she still remembered the location. Specifically due to the restraining order that had once been in place. That, and it kind of stood out. The one house on the street that seemed marginally better taken care of than the others.

It’s easy. Say you’re sorry, bury the hatchet. But like, not in a brutal way. She’d heard of people never getting closure in their lives. Mostly in books and movies, but it happened supposedly. She was doing the right thing.

Mae walked up onto the front porch of the Cullen household and knocked as loudly as she could on the front door. Yeah. The right thing. Only like, how exactly do you say ‘Sorry I almost beat you to death’?

Several creaks from inside the building. Still a chance to run away, Mae. No way, Mae. You’ve got this. You took down a cult. You didn’t actually do anything to them either, so imagine what you can accomplish if you _do_ do something here.

Mae high fived herself just moments before the front door opened inwards, and standing before her was the ever so slightly off-looking Andy Cullen.

He looked her up and down, an unreadable expression on his face. “Hey” he said.

Mae raised a hand and waved. “Hey”

And they stood there, on either sides of the doorway in silence.

Andy took a deep breath and stepped outside, shutting the door behind him. He took a cigarette from the pack in his pocket, Coal Town if she remembered right, and went about lighting it.

“I uh… just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing” Mae said.

“Mm” Andy mumbled, working on holding the cigarette between his lips while he lit it.

“So… you’re looking… better” She went on.

Andy looked her in the eye a moment, smiling his awkward smile while he took a breath from his smoke. “Funny” he commented. And he limped away from the door, over to the railing of his porch. There he leaned, letting his tired leg rest. “Very funny, Mae”

Mae rubbed the back of her neck, where it was feeling uncomfortably warm despite the freezing weather. “I just figured since you were in town for Longest Night and all, and it’s been a few years that like... I should stop in and-”

“Say you’re sorry” Andy finished for her, nodding.

“Yeah” Mae nodded.

Andy thought it over. “Went to college a couple years ago” he said. When Mae looked confused, he added “You asked how I was doing”

Mae smirked, and immediately felt bad for doing so. “Me too”

“Well what are you doing back here?” Andy asked. He was a goddamn expert in making this feel so comforting and so incredibly hostile at the same time”

“Dropped out” Mae admitted.

“Imagine that” Andy commented. “Believe it or not I haven’t done so great myself”

Mae’s ear twitched. “Dropped out too?”

“Something like that” Andy nodded. "Couldn't stand being there anymore. Got a lot of questions from people, got not so many people who wanted to hang around me. Any idea why that could have been?” He asked, leaning over to look Mae head on with his lopsided face.

It took Mae a minute to process what he’d just said. “Uh…”

That would be a minute Andy didn’t let her have. “So yeah college didn’t work out. You’d be amazed how much people attention people give you when you’re known by everyone in your hometown as the kid who almost died and by everyone everywhere else as the freak with the ruined face”

“I’m s-”

"And then, here's the best part, I kept getting turned away from everywhere I applied to work” Andy said, laughing as he did as though it was one big sick joke. He took a step forward on his weaker leg, wobbling just long enough for Mae to see. “Leg's not so great for manual labor, face isn't so great for dealing with customers”

Mae stammered, trying to apologize again, until a switch clicked in her brain. “So what you’re just trying to make me feel bad!?” She shouted back.

Andy snorted, thinking it over. “You’re right, how rude of me" He took a deep breath, letting himself calm. But only a little. "I _do_ want you to feel bad. How could I not feel a little resentment towards you for almost killing me? Suppose I should thank you for not actually doing it, right? You sure  _tried_ to” He asked, grinning like an idiot.

Grinning in such a way, with such unambiguous rage that it would have made Mae feel better if he’d just been yelling.

“Look, I- I just came out here to say sorry alright?!” Mae was yelling now. Why was she yelling? "And you're just being like... just being the _biggest_ dick right now. None of that's my fault. Maybe your life's screwed up 'cause your attitude's screwed up!"

Andy looked her up and down, then shrugged. “Well you said your sorrys. Congratulations” he said, putting his cigarette back in his mouth. "Look. _I'm_ sorry. Shit just hasn't been going my way the past few years. _You_ aren't helping, so kindly screw off"

Mae gave a deep sigh. "Alright. Fine. Whatever, just..." Almost over, almost over. “Just… are we cool?” She asked.

“‘Cool?’” Andy asked, bewildered. He looked at her like she was an idiot. She _was_ an idiot.

Mae tried to explain, tried to tell him it wasn’t her fault. Tried to tell him he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tried to say he was being unfair even though she couldn’t argue with a word of what he’d said. “Yeah like… I really… I don’t know how to explain it. I wasn’t thinking, and-”

As Mae spoke, Andy stepped over, took a deep drag from his cigarette, then blew a lungful of smoke in her face. Mae immediately fell on her ass, gasping and hacking and feeling her throat tighten and her face swell.

“Go fuck yourself, Mae” Andy said, flicking his cigarette on her, then limping back over to the door. He let himself back in and slammed the door shut behind him.

Mae wasn’t entirely sure when. She did know she’d gone from sitting to lying there hacking on the porch when she heard footsteps running up, and Bea was there lifting her back up to sit.

“Mae. Mae look at me”

Mae tried to open her eyes, despite how they stung. Despite how they watered from the feeling of absolutely no air getting down her neck. Still wasn’t as bad as being maced. _God_ she hated mace.

Bea kept talking, but Mae didn’t really hear it. At some point she helped Mae stumble back over to the car. Soon enough Mae was sitting in her seat with her body facing out the door and only just barely wheezing any sort of breaths while Bea stood out in the snow alternating between calling Andy a variety of slurs under her breath and trying to say something to help Mae.

At one point she asked if Mae needed to see a doctor, or if she had an epipen. Mae shook her head to both. It’s fine, it’s all fine. Just breathe. Just concentrate on breathing. You’re good at that, you’ve been doing it for most of your life. You can do it in your sleep. You’re so good at it that it’s easier to do it than not do it.

God, how pathetic was this?

Soon enough, Mae was righted in her seat, probably by Bea. She was buckled in, and the car was moving. Mae’s window was down, which was kind of nice. The colder air felt heavenly in her throat, as feeling was coming back to it.

“-kick his ass right back to the goddamn hospital…” Bea muttered.

Mae snickered through her bleary eyes. Awesome.

Bea took note of her having apparently returned to reality. “Hey, hey, you okay? Do you need-”

“I’m okay” Mae wheezed.

“What the hell was he thinking?” Bea asked.

Mae shrugged, taking in as deep a breath as she could. “I don’t think he knew”

“We can call the police when we get back…”

“It’s okay”

“It’s _not_ okay, Mae!” Bea growled.

Mae shook her head. “No cops” She wheezed out. She turned and stared back out the window. “I ruined his life, Bea”

Bea shook her head. Okay. Calm. Calm time. Just… deal with this now. Bea sighed. “Mae, you hurt him. You didn’t ruin his life”

“It feels like I did”

“Well you didn’t” Bea answered. She regretted it as soon as she’d said it. It was basically a mom going ‘because I said so’. “Listen, whatever his problem is, it’s his own. What you did was screwed up but it was years ago. If he’s still brooding, that’s his problem. Not yours, okay?”

Mae stared out the window. Her ear twitched, she breathed loudly… and eventually said “Yeah. Okay”

Bea rolled down her own window to take a deep, cool breath as well. Yeah. The cold air really helped.

Didn’t help relieve the tension, but…

“Mae” Bea said again.

Mae raised her head and looked over. “Hm?”

“You apologized, right?”

“Yeah”

Bea nodded to her. “Then you’re a good person” Mae said nothing. Bea rolled her eyes, took a deep breath, and went on. “Seriously. I mean it, however badly it turned out. I don’t think I would have tried, if I were in your shoes. You’re a good person. A real, genuinely good person” she said.

Mae didn’t argue this time. She just focused on calming her throat, taking deep, cool breaths. “Thank you”

* * *

It was hours later when Mae could then breathe without sounding like she was dying and talk without sounding like she smoked twice as much as Bea that the two wandered out to the front of the closed down Party Barn.

“You sure you’re alright?” Bea asked. Were it up to her, neither of them would be here. After what had happened earlier, band practice was the last thing that seemed appropriate for the day. And yet...

“I’m fine” Mae answered.

Mae grabbed the handle of the Party Barn’s door and started tugging. It creaked loudly, but kept up it’s late habit of being a giant pain in the ass to open.

“You’re a terrible liar” Bea said, as the door suddenly snapped free and swung out, almost throwing Mae onto her ass. If not for Bea’s quick grab of her arm.

Mae chuckled under her breath, her ears drooping. “Just help me get my mind off it okay?”

Bea sighed and nodded in agreement, before leading them both inside.

“Yoooooooooo!” Gregg cheered as the girls approached the birthday stage, waving. “You guys are late!”

“We got stuck in traffic” Bea answered, her laptop tucked under her arm.

Angus raised an eyebrow “You drove here?”

“What are we playing?” Mae asked. She’d already wandered up to her usual spot and taken the liberty of slinging her bass around herself.

Angus shrugged. “Usually Gregg picks”

Gregg nodded knowingly. “Yeah I pick. And today I pick… uhhhhhhhhhh…”

While ‘uhhhing’ he ran over to his usual spot and began flipping through the little booklet he had of all his and Mae’s made up songs from the past couple years.

Bea took the opportunity to set up her laptop and pull up a box to sit on.

“… uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhpumpkin Head Guy!” Gregg declared, shutting his booklet.

Mae was immediately in disapproval. “We are not doing Pumpkin Head Guy!” She cried.

“Why not?” He asked.

Mae sputtered out a total lie of an answer. “It’s like… it’s an autumn song! We’re out of season!”

“All of our songs are autumn songs!” Gregg said in his usual far too loud but not actually shouting voice. “It’s not my fault autumn is the coolest season!”

“Winter is the coolest season” Angus said, at his own pun.

Mae crossed her arms. “Well I can’t do that solo”

“Just gotta practice, man! You’ve got this” For all his pushing, Gregg did sound sincere enough. And yet…

Bea thought it over a moment, then cleared her throat to call attention. “Hey, hold on. Mae, what do you want to play?”

“Huh?” Gregg asked.

Mae’s eyes were already lit up with the possibility. All these practice sessions, all the missed notes, all the sucking, leading up to the chance to pick a song she actually effing knew.

Bea shrugged. “She’s been back almost two months and hasn’t picked a song yet. What do you want to play, Mae?”

Hmmmm. Mae squinted, looking the three of them up and down. But what? What would be the most satisfying after all these weeks…

Her eyes settled on Gregg, and a dastardly thought settled into her mind. “Tick Tock” Mae said.

“Tick Tock?” Gregg asked.

Mae nodded. “The Charity Bearity song we spruced up”

“Oh wow, I haven’t thought about Tick Tock in years” Angus said.

Gregg rifled through his notebook again, before yelling “We can't do Tick Tock! I don’t remember it!”

Well that was the long and the short of it. Maybe one of them not knowing a song was acceptable, but three?

“... I do” Angus spoke up, smiling.

“Seriously?” Gregg asked.

Bea shrugged, running her hands over her keyboard. “Is it just a Tick Tock sound over and over?”

Angus nodded. “Yep, for like three minutes”

“Got it. We can play” And within the next ten seconds, Bea had it set up and ready to go on her laptop.

“Huh?!” Gregg looked between the two of them. Then he looked at Mae, who was grinning ear to ear. “Huh?!”

“Aw yesssss” Mae hissed out like a snake, far too pleased with herself. She was already positioning her hands on her bass.

Then all eyes were on Gregg, who was standing in complete confusion.

“Huh?!”

About three minutes of completely failed notes and strums later, Gregg just about given up completely when the song finally came to an end.

The very moment it was over, Gregg held his newly sore wrist and yelled “Aaaaaah! That sucked!”

Mae, who had for once been absolutely perfect in her own performance, could not have been smiling wider. She wandered over wearing her favorite shit eating grin and commented “Eeeeh, that was pretty alright, Gregg”

“Traitor!” He said.

“That was… something” Bea commented.

“I literally don’t know this song!” Gregg cried out.

Angus put a hand on Gregg’s shoulder. “You’ll get it next time, bug”

“This is a betrayal that will not soon be forgotten!” The fox yelled to none of them really.

Mae stepped away and took a seat on the edge of the stage, looking over the room as if only just noticing something was missing. Whatever it was, it did seem to ever so slightly dampen the beautiful schadenfreude she was experiencing.

Bea wandered over and tapped her back. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Nothin’” Mae answered.

“You sure?” Bea asked.

Mae thought it over. “Did you ever get rid of those rats at the Pickaxe?”

Rats, rats… right. She’d actually laid out the poison for them around the start of November, so besides the occasional straggler it was safe to say Bea had eliminated all the rats. “Uh…. most of them, yeah. Why?”

Something about that only seemed to dampen Mae’s mood more. She kicked her legs where she sat and eventually hopped down. “I’m gonna hang out with Gregg for a while, if that’s cool”

“You sure?” Bea asked.

“Yeah. Gotta do some stuff. Thanks for driving me today”

Bea gave a quick nod to see her off. Mae took the opportunity to hurry over and wedge herself as firmly between Gregg and Angus as possible, as was her typical place in that trio.

Bea watched Mae immediately strike up a conversation with Gregg, accompanied by a few… questionable hand motions. Gregg then complained about practice again and immediately accepted anyway because he had nothing better to do. She wasn’t paying a ton of attention, but the phrase ‘break in’ definitely stood out.

And well… it’s not like she had any desire to head home today anyway.

“Hey, uh…” Bea wandered over, just as the two idiots began their usual routine of repeating the word ‘Crimes’ to each other back and forth. “On second thought, you mind if I come along?”

“ _You_ want to come along for crimes?” Gregg asked.

“Yeah, you?” Angus asked just the same. Somehow Angus’s very obvious unhappy tone was less painful to hear that Gregg’s approving one.

Bea shrugged. “Just one. If that’s alright with you guys”

Mae immediately grabbed Bea by the sleeve, tugging her into their little circle. “Dude she is one hundred percent coming with us” Mae whispered to Gregg easily loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Dude I would never pass this chance up!” Gregg squealed. He looked to Angus, waving. “Angus, you should totally come too!”

Angus barely even thought it over. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m not helping you break into the Trolleyside News”

“Break i- what?” Bea asked.

* * *

“This place just isn’t the same without that smell!” Gregg complained.

The new crime fighting trio, that being a trio of fighters except Bea who did crimes including Bea now, had made their way down into the old trolley tunnel. And besides a few teens loitering around and a man fishing in the flooded tunnel that tried to hide his face as soon as he saw Mae, it was pretty quiet.

Mostly on account of the Trolleyside News stand in question, which regularly sold pretzels and pierogies but was for the past week or so closed up. Not that the metal shutters over the front counter did much to stop anyone from looking inside, but the lack of anyone actually baking any delicious foods kinda ruined it.

“I think the owner guy is sick or something? Got the flu?” Mae said.

Gregg “Maybe we killed him in the mine”

Mae thought it over. She didn’t exactly pay attention to the days, but… uh… “Nah, I’m pretty sure he still worked here after that. And we didn’t kill anyone”

“Okay we are not having this conversation again” Bea immediately separated the two before they could get any deeper into it. “Can we hurry up?”

“Geez. Bossy crimes today…” Mae mumbled.

Bea would just ignore that. For now. Little shit.

Mae lead them around the back to the locked door leading in, whereupon she threw up her hands and declared “Mr. Lee, work your magic!”

Gregg hesitated a moment despite having his lockpicking kit already in his hands. “I can’t do it if you’re watching” he said.

“Really?” Mae tilted her head.

“Haha no, I don’t care” He admitted, taking his place at the door to start working the lock.

“You know if you want a pretzel why don’t you just get one from the Snack Falcon?” Bea asked. “You know, the one you work for” she added, specifically towards Gregg.

Mae rolled her eyes. “Bea, we’re trying to fight against corporate owned society here”

“You’re trying to steal pretzels”

“Also true”

“Got it!” Gregg yelled. With a final click, the door to the Trolleyside News swung open.

Mae whistled, impressed. Well, tried to whistle. She was inexcusably terrible at whistling. “Wow, that was a lot faster than normal”

Gregg pocketed his lockpicking kit. “Yeah the dude didn’t actually lock it. Come on”

The door lead inside to… well, the single room of the news stand. It was pretty much just a kitchen. For some reason Mae had at least expected it to be bigger on the inside.

Actually, there was pretty much nothing inside here that couldn’t be seen from the shutters.

After about thirty full seconds of looking it over from the inside, then running back outside to look in, then returning inside, Mae conceded “Well this sucks”

“What’d you expect?” Bea asked.

Mae shrugged. “I kinda figured they’d just have a huge stash in here somewhere”

Gregg was already in the process of searching the cabinets. “They probably do, dude. It’s just hidden somewhere. No one can make _that_ many pretzels in one day”

“I think like six people come through here a day. Tops” Bea said. “Can you just grab one from the counter?”

Well, they were behind the shutters now so there was nothing stopping them from doing that… nothing besides Mae’s stubbornness.

Mae shook her head. “I can’t take those ones! They’re stale!”

“All of the pretzels here are stale! They’re pretzels and it’s been a week, so unless one of you knows how to bake…” Bea trailed off. She looked to Mae and Gregg who were now both staring expectantly at her. “No” she said.

Gregg raised his hands to his mouth to better shout “Boooo!”

“We did not break into a pretzel stand for me to-!”

“Boooooo!” Mae joined in. Before long the two of them were just booing in general.

Okay. Bea had the ever so slight urge to call the police and just lock these two in the stand. But she would be the bigger person. She grabbed a pair of pretzels from the front counter, marched up to Mae and Gregg, and shoved one in each of their booing mouths. “Here’s your effing pretzels. Let’s go”

Mae tried to say one or two words around the pretzel before taking one good bite out of it and shoving the rest in her pocket. “Fine, fine, thanks Bea”

Gregg on the other hand had picked a fight with his own, determined to eat the entire thing.

If it was any other day, if she wasn’t trying to make Mae feel better after this morning… oh the things she’d love to say. But for today, Bea held her tongue.

Bea just followed them back out of the stand and shut the door behind them. “Alright, we got your pretzels. Now what?” She asked, hoping against hope that they really were just bored enough that _this_ was the extent of their plans.

“Hmmm…” Mae thought it over. That was a bad sign. “Well I don’t know if you can do this part but it’s got some climbing…”

* * *

Okay eff this and eff these two stupid idiots and their stupid crimes.

While both Mae and Gregg were more than fine standing on the ledge outside the third floor of an abandoned apartment building, Bea was keeping herself from looking down. Just trying to focus on how small… no, big the ledge was. Big. Plenty of room. Totally fine. Maybe the snow wasn’t helping, maybe she hated climbing in general, maybe this whole thing was just incredibly stupid. But it was fine still. Deep breaths.

Mae finally managed to yank open a window, pinching her finger as she did. When that little bout of swearing was done with, she climbed inside and waved for the others to follow her.

“So… is this just crimes as usual?” Bea asked, as Gregg climbed in.

“Nah. We usually knife fight in the woods or steal stuff” he answered.

Bea nodded. “I think this still counts as stealing”

“Well yeah but usually I pick what we steal. I’ve never been up here before!” Gregg was far too giddy about this whole thing considering it’d probably have no real payoff.

Mae hadn’t actually taken the time to explain what they were doing besides stealing pretzels and breaking in.

When Gregg was fully in, Bea climbed through as well and was immediately happy to find herself back on solid ground. She took a deep breath, savoring it.“So you’re fine just… breaking into random buildings?” She asked.

“It’s called crimes for a reason, Bea” Gregg shook his head. “Get with the program already!”

Bea grabbed and went back to chewing on her dummy cigarette to calm her nerves. “Fine, fine. I’m already along for the ride” she said, following Gregg.

Mae had cleared out of the small box filled room the moment she’d gotten in the window, not even waiting for the other two before hurrying on. Still, there weren’t exactly a ton of options so…

The next room over was filled with yet more boxes, most of these open and filled to the brim with fake flowers and countless unused decorations. They had a somewhat nostalgic feel about them, but apparently Mae had darted straight past this room as well since she wasn’t in here either.

“I think a few of these are from that parade we used to have. What was it called?” Bea asked.

“Iunno” Gregg shrugged. “The one with Mallard?”

“I think so. He was like a duck or something, right?”

“Yeah” Gregg answered. The two remained in awkward silence for a moment before he asked “Hey how come we never hang out?”

“We just broke into an abandoned apartment building” Bea explained.

“So?”

“... I don’t like doing that?”

“Oh yeah that makes sense” Gregg nodded. “Has anyone ever told you you’re zero fun?”

Bea sighed. “Let’s just find Mae and get this over with” she said, heading through the abandoned decoration boxes with some care not to knock any over.

Up the stairs and into the next room, the only one remaining with its door still opened. Gregg had been following along, at least until the two of them spied what awaited inside, at which point he immediately shoved his way past Bea with uncontained excitement. “Holy crap, is that Mallard?!” He yelled.

Indeed, the abandoned parade duck was lying broken and faded, barely fitting in the final storage room, with Mae kneeling in front of it arms deep into a crack in its side.

“Better!” Mae cried, spinning around now holding an armful of rats, one of which held the pretzel she’d brought in its mouth while the others nipped at it to try and get a piece.

Bea flinched away, eyes wide. “Oh my god those are rats!”

“They’re my babies!” Mae cried, mouth wide open in a smile.

Gregg practically give a perfect repeat of his squeals from the previous day, walking forward with his arms spread for rat hugs. He immediately scooped up a pile from the hole in Mallard, laughing loudly while turning to face Mae. “This is awesome! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“They’re my babies! I’m not just gonna show them off!” Mae scolded. “They need to be fed and cared for”

“I’m going to be sick” Bea was currently very slowly backing out from the room.

“Hahaha, they’re biting me!” Gregg cheered.

Mae nodded, rocking her armful of vermin. “Yeah they’ll do that. It means they like you”

“Wait- is this why I had an infestation of these things at the Pickaxe?!” Bea yelled.

Mae turned her nose up. “They are not an infestation, and they are not things! They are family, Beatrice”

And so Gregg and Mae stood rocking their rats, with Bea standing a ways off to the side. It was now that she realized just how many were in the building. Some in the corners, some just hidden around a box or two, some just off at the eye of her vision, all just ignored. Until now.

“This… this is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done” Bea sighed. Yeah. She was definitely going to be sick tonight.

Mae, however, didn’t care. She was practically rubbing her face on them with how close she was hugging her armful of rats, most of which were at this point trying to escape her grip. And despite their little nips and bites, she never stopped smiling.

Well… okay. Maybe coming along wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

* * *

“Night duders!” Gregg shouted, waving Mae and Bea off.

Now back on the much more secure and much less bitey sidewalk outside the apartment building, the trio had concluded that their task was effectively done for the day. A roaring success even. They’d also spent far longer inside than Bea ever would have wanted, and by now the sun had set. It was doing that pretty early lately, what with Longest Night coming up. Only three more days.

“I think I need two showers tonight” Bea shivered as soon as Gregg had hurried off out of earshot.

These two at least lived in the same direction, and so they could walk together.

“Weeeeak, you’re weak Bea” Mae teased, smirking. She smelled like dirt and wet fur. Not even her own wet fur, like usually.

“Sure. But I’m going to be clean” Bea sighed. “So uh… how you feeling?”

“Hm?” Mae kicked at the snow, trying her best to ignore the thought. “Oh. Yeah. I’m fine”

“You sure?”

“I’m fine, Beatrice” Mae scolded, suddenly finding the ground a very interesting thing to look at.

Down the hill, down the hill, until they came to Bea’s apartment building. There they stopped for just a moment to give a quick goodbye for the day.

“Thanks for today, Bea. It was like… stupid nice of you. ” Mae said with a wave.

Bea shrugged. “Don’t mention it. Really, don’t. I don’t want to think about it”

“Hmm” Mae debated this, and instead said “Thanks in general”

“Sure, I’ll take that” Bea smirked. “Night Mae” She said, and then pushed the door open to her apartment building.

“Hey actually, uh…” Mae grabbed her sleeve, half following Bea in. “If it’s cool with your dad and all, can I spend the night?”

“Here?”

“Yeah”

After today… well, yeah that was the problem. Today. Bea practically spoiled her to cheer Mae up. She didn’t have to do anything, but then it felt weird to say no now. One night, that was fine.

Bea took a deep breath and held the door open. “Alright, come on”

“Sweet! You’re the best!” Mae ran in, immediately running over to the elevator and hitting the call button.

Bea took her spot waiting just to Mae’s side. “You’re just saying that ‘cause I spoiled you today”

Mae nodded. “Right. That’s _why_ you’re the best, but you’re still the best”

Can’t argue with that.

The elevator doors slid open after another second or two. One quick reminder of which floor Bea lived on later, as Mae had forgotten yet demanded she get to hit the button, and they were riding up.

Bea didn't even want to think about her dad right now, which made it all the worse when she unlocked their apartment door and immediately her dad was giving her the evil eye from the couch.

He took a deep breath and settled his vision back on the television while Bea entered, Mae trailing behind. It’d been a long time since she’d actually visited.

The two barely got out of the entrance hallway before Mr. Santello asked “Hell happened today?” With his eyes still focused on the screen.

Bea tossed her keys on the kitchen island. “Personal stuff came up” She answered.

Mr. Santello looked over, very clearly not pleased with the answer, and on cue Mae stepped out from behind Bea, hands on her hips and admiring the apartment.

“This place feels bigger somehow. What’d you guys do?” She asked.

And so Mr. Santello hesitated. And turned his eyes back to the screen. “We’ll talk about it later” he said. “Leftover pizza in the fridge”

“Thanks, dad” Bea nodded. And yet she still had no desire to hang around tonight, immediately leading Mae and herself to the back hallway where hers and her father’s rooms were. Where she was safe for the day.

Mae wasn’t exactly going to complain about the lack of dinner today. Besides, she was pretty sure she couldn’t pull off the miracle dinner she’d made last time again. She’d mostly guessed what to get at the store

And then back in Bea’s room again, where the carpet was white and the furniture consisted of Bea’s bed and about a dozen cardboard boxes with at most their tops ripped open. “So… you still didn’t unpack” Mae commented, while Bea laid down on her bed, rubbing her eyes.

“If it bugs you, feel free to start doing that” Bea groaned.

Mae wandered over and took her seat next to Bea. “Nah. It’s got some character. Says you’re like an evil genius with no time for simple stuff”

“Yeah that’s pretty close” Bea yawned, finally sitting up.

“So… what do you usually do in here then?” Mae asked.

“Study, online class stuff, or just watch shows on my laptop” Bea was already in the process of opening her laptop up and setting it down on her bed.

“I’m good with shows”

“Figured. Get comfortable” Bea opened up some website Mae didn’t recognize on account of her only really looking at funny videos, porn, and games.

Once it was done, Bea laid back and took a deep breath. A day with Mae. This is how she typically unwound from a day with Mae. Usually without _more_ Mae. This could be difficult.

“Aw yes” Mae kicked off her boots, laid down, and snuggled in, grabbing hold of Bea’s exposed arm and staring at the screen. Not that it was actually playing yet, on account of Bea hesitating with Mae holding onto her like that. “What?” She asked.

Bea hesitated again and answered “... nothing” before clicking to start the player.

Needless to say, it wasn’t the two animal comedians Mae was familiar with based on the opening. “So what’s this about?” She asked.

Bea opened her mouth to answer and was suddenly stuck with a look of confusion. “... you know? I have no idea”

Mae grabbed the mouse and shook it, bringing up the title and episode number. “Says here you’re two seasons in”

Bea nodded. “Yeah but I still don’t really know. It’s mostly this guy running around without a job trying to pull off these get rich quick schemes and getting in trouble with the wrong people”

“Who would the right people be?” Mae asked.

“The ones who aren’t going to beat down your door and break your knees for not having their money”

“Hm” Mae eventually nodded. She could accept that. “Yeah that’s fair. I wouldn’t have any more joints to break by now if I messed with those sorts of people”

Bea gave Mae’s leg a quick pat. “I think they’d just kill you after the whole knees thing”

Mae shrugged. “I had a good run”

“Not without your knees you didn’t”

And so the two laid there, mostly unmoving for the next hour. Then two. Eventually Bea got up to turn the light in her room off, leaving only her laptop’s glow to illuminate the two of them, but the moment she was laying back down there was Mae clinging to her again.

Soon enough they’d lost track of the time completely, as well as whatever show this actually was. It was a good opportunity to talk about nothing and just make fun of whatever was onscreen.

And besides that. It was a good opportunity to… not talk. Just enjoy each other’s company. Seemed like all they did was run their mouths every day. There was something especially calming about the silence.

Bea took the mouse to click over to the next video, and found Mae uncomfortably locked onto her arm. When she tried to pull, Mae came with her, and it was only at that point that she realized Mae’s eyes were closed.

It was also at that point that she noticed besides the silence, there was a low rumbling noise coming from Mae. Not her stomach, more of a muffled vibrating sound. Well, whatever that was, Mae was no doubt asleep and so Bea was pretty securely trapped.

She sighed, shut the laptop, and laid back to stare at the ceiling. Yeah. This was alright.

Bea shut her eyes for the night. This was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter sucked.
> 
> Yeah that's about all I have. The later bits feel like they flow really awkward to me. Besides that I redid the Andy convo a lot. It never came out how I wanted. Didn't want to make Andy a villain, but pretty much the first draft of any Andy scene had him being ridiculously, unapologetically mean to the point of being a strawman, and that shouldn't be the case. He should just be... a guy. A guy who was wronged, who is understandably bitter about it but otherwise a decent guy. I STILL don't like his portrayal this chapter, and I edited it AGAIN as I was uploading it. Giant pain in the ass...
> 
> I liked writing Bea's apartment though.
> 
> Here's another question. Why do I release the story when there are parts of it I'm not happy with?
> 
> Because if I didn't, I would never release a story. Chapter 4 is easily my favorite and it was a god damn nightmare to get out. And it's STILL not perfect.
> 
> Oh yeah, one last thing. I actually got a drawing of a bit of this chapter. Maybe I'll find a spot to include it that's a little less intrusive. Maybe at the end.


	3. 12/19, You're Bad Luck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is long. Like, REALLY long. The longest in the story, and in this story all but the first chapter are longer than every one in The Perfect Storm. I hope that sentence made sense. This chapter was actually so long that it started causing problems. It drags on and I started looking for parts to cut, but found that wanting to cut a little of anything meant cutting a lot as a whole for the sake of making it continue to flow. I'm also biased because this was the first chapter that just felt 100% good all the way through. Though, to be fair, after it was done the whole length issue took away from me liking it even more.

You know, Mae had to wonder why she never bothered to say anything to these guys. Maybe it was just a politeness thing. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to play bass if someone was trying to talk to her at the same time too.

Well, to be fair two of these guys had their mouths permanently occupied by their instruments. The guy with the violin seemed really into it too so she didn’t want to bother him. But an accordion? That was just silly. Not that she wanted to diss anyone’s preferred music but part of her brain was pretty sure accordions didn’t even exist back when these guys died.

At present Mae was laying atop an entirely black building, skewed in such a way that she risked sliding off to whatever was far below. On the other hand, the accordion guy’s perch was just above her and now that she had this whole thought process in mind she wasn’t going to leave so easily.

God, it kinda bugged her how the constellations were all so completely laid out in this sky. It was like cheating. Connecting the stars was half the fun of it. Alright screw this, just do it. Just talk to him.

Mae sat up, taking care not to slide down off the building’s roof, and opened her mouth to speak. From it came a blaring alarm that shook her to her core.

She slapped her hands over her mouth, and the alarm sounded again.

She opened her eyes, now staring at the ceiling of Bea’s bedroom, and it sounded again.

“Ugh, sorry, alarm clock…” Bea’s voice groaned from beside her.

“I got it!” Mae darted up from the bed, very nearly falling over herself. Getting up this suddenly  _ sucked _ . In fact the only thing that sucked more was having to actually move after getting up this suddenly.

It was like a million thoughts were blazing through her mind while she found the source of the beeping. A digital face clock, plugged in but just placed back atop the other contents of its box.

Bleary eyed, Mae mashed her fingers against the buttons on top until the alarm turned off.

God, clocks sucked. Everything about this sucked. Is this how Bea woke up every day? Bea sucked too then, by default.

Mae wandered back over to the bed, rubbing her head with her eyes unevenly opened. Bea was already sat up, stretching out and looking far less approachable than usual, which was kind of amazing really.

Then a thought came to Mae’s mind, and she froze at the bedside. “Oh my god” she said.

“What?” Bea groaned, rubbing her eyes.

“I just thought about college”

“Yeah?”

“Oh my god” Mae repeated, looking at her hands like she’d just killed someone.

“What?”

“Oh my  **god** ” Mae repeated again, now looking horrified.

“Mae?”

Then Mae’s face returned to just looking tired. “... alright I’m good” she said before falling  face first back onto the mattress, burying her face in Bea’s pillow.

“What just happened?” Bea asked.

Mae half mumbled something into the pillow, somehow going from talking to snoring within the same second. It was kind of impressive, really.

“Alright, whatever, I don’t care” Bea sighed, picking herself up and going through her various boxes to grab a clean set of clothes. She stopped briefly at Mae’s side to shake her shoulder. “Hey, come on, get up. You’ve gotta go”

Mae lifted her head from the pillow, looking even worse somehow. “Wuzza you talking about?” She mumbled.

“You’ve gotta go. I have to go to work, so you can’t stay”

Mae glanced over to the clock, then dug herself back under the covers. “Just lemme leave later. We only slept like seven hours”

Bea shook her head, puzzled. “How long do you-? Actually, no, don’t answer that. Come on, I’m not having you just hang out in my room while I’m at work”

“Beebeeeee…” Mae whined.

“Up” Bea commanded, grabbing her essentials for the day. “I didn’t get to eat last night, I didn’t get to shower… where’s my keys?”

“You put them on the thingy in the other room” Mae groaned, finally sitting up.

Bea shook her head. Nice, helpful. “Alright, I’m gonna shower and get ready, you can sleep in for like ten minutes if you really need it. Then you’ve gotta go” she said, an armful of clothes.

“You are like seriously sucking right now” Mae lifted her shirt to wipe her face off with, giving it a few gentle slaps to wake herself up.

“Just one thing…” Bea mumbled hurriedly to herself.

She sat down on the bedside and her laptop while Mae focused on remaining conscious for more than fifteen seconds. Bea opened up her messenger window, opened a chat with Mae, and began typing up a message when Mae herself looked at what she was doing over shoulder.

“Okay maybe I’m tired but what are you doing?” Mae asked.

Bea hesitated, looked at Mae herself, the back to the screen, then deleted what she’d wrote. “Right, sorry, crap. Force of habit”

“Is it just the usual? Pickaxe, come visit and make you happy?” Mae asked, finally starting, and failing, to stand up again.

“No. Not today” Bea shut her laptop and headed to the door, stopping at it. “Busy today. Do me a favor, no visits okay?”

“What’s happening today?” Mae asked.

“Ugh, I don’t even want to think about it”

Mae thought it over. Well, if Bea needed help then… “I can like-”

“No, Mae. No. Today’s busy” Bea instantly cut her off, halfway out the door.

“You say that about every day!” Mae called after her. She finally stood up straight, caught her balance, and stretched.

Bea rolled her eyes. “I mean it every day. But today’s busier than normal, so no stop ins alright? I really need to focus” Then without another word, she disappeared through the door.

Out in the hall another door was heard opening, then shutting a second later. Which… Mae guessed was the bathroom? Actually she kinda needed to go now. But it’d be weird to barge in and ask, so she’d just have to deal with it.

Oh right, she hadn’t answered. “Alright” she said to no one. Good job Mae, you can totally function on this much sleep.

Mae collected herself a moment more and gave one last look around over Bea’s room. Maybe she should unpack some of these boxes, just to surprise her. Or just rifle through Bea’s stuff. Not that Mae was super interested in anything she might find, but it’d probably creep Bea out and that’d be kinda funny to do ironically. Except that Bea being creeped out would be real, and that’d suck.

Mae checked the clock. Six minutes had passed with her just considering this. Okay yeah you can mostly function like this. Let’s just leave already, you can sleep more at home.

Out in the… main room? It was sort of a living room, but sort of a kitchen too. Apartments were weird like that. ‘Main room’ would do fine. The point was Mae had stopped for just a moment to decide whether or not to see how Mr. Santello’s indent on the couch would fit her. But then she started thinking about the whole ‘main room’ idea and her train of thought was thoroughly wrecked.

Okay. Focus. Grab Bea’s keys for her? It sounded like the shower was already on so Mae definitely wasn’t going to go knocking on the door with keys in hand. Better not move them or you’ll just make her mad.

“Oh my god I’m still here” Mae wiped her face down again. Focus. Really. Focus. You’re just leaving, nothing else.

Okay. Yeah. Leaving.

One needlessly boring elevator ride later and Mae found herself back on good old ground floor… ground. Elevators were supposed to have music. Or maybe that was just at fancy hotels. Or maybe just in movies? She’d never actually heard elevator music in real life, not even at college. But then there hadn’t been elevators at college, so…

Mae slapped her cheek as she exited the apartment building. Okay, back on track. Home. But do you really want to go home? Mom’s probably scared sick. Definitely should’ve called home last night. The whole almost dying in the woods thing didn’t help. If you go home you’re gonna have to deal with that. Damn, Possum Springs was downright pretty in the early morning snowfall.

“I bet I smell terrible” Mae mused.

Hadn’t showered, running around in smokey clothes and rat grime.

Okay well for some reason you’re walking up the hill, so I guess we’re not going home. Just as well anyway, you can call Mom later. The next closest place is… uh… the church? But that’s like, a  _ lot _ of stairs. Do you really want to deal with that this morning?

Well it’s that or go wake up Gregg and Angus, so…

It was around the time Mae was knocking on the church doors that the thought crossed her mind “They have jobs too, so maybe they’re already awake” and she was cursing herself for the trek up. Well her legs were slightly more tired than the rest of her so this was just how it was gonna be.

A minute or two of waiting and there was a creak from inside. Why not just go inside like always? It just sorta felt weird barging in this early, I guess? If this counted as early. People with jobs are insane.

The door opened, and Pastor K was inside waiting. “Hey there Mae. Up early today?” She stepped aside to allow Mae in.

“Uuuuugh” Mae replied with all of her available brainpower. “Do you like live here or something?” She asked, hurrying in.

Pastor K shut the door behind her and went over to the front desk, taking a seat behind it. Weird seeing someone not Mom sitting there. “No, I work here. Feels like the same thing sometimes though”

“That makes sense. I’m gonna go sleep in the back room” Mae said, already wandering into the back hallway.

“Uh... Alright. I’ll let you know when your mom comes in” Pastor K answered.

She’d kept talking too, not that Mae heard a word after that over her own groaning after mom was mentioned.

Maybe this was rude. Well maybe but no one was actually stopping her. Mae contemplated this while she hopped up on the bench in the back room. A nice dusty old room filled with books where the light from the window shined in just right. She’d always wanted to come in here just to read, but she was always busy lately. Busy with business. Busy busy busy.

Mae curled up on the bench and shut her eyes thinking about how busy she was. Yeah, busy. Geez, wonder if Pastor K could smell her.

* * *

A scratching on the window awoke Mae this time. She opened her eyes and immediately regretted it, finding the sun now shining perfectly through the back room’s window directly into her eyes. Mae reeled upright, both stretching and rubbing her eyes at once. A safer glance over to the window showed it was a squirrel currently staring inside at her.

Damn. She should get a squirrel.

Out the back hall and into the foyer, scratching her ass the whole way, Mae made her way up to the front desk where her mother was sitting. Candy had glanced over only for a moment, looking far too engrossed in whatever the stack of papers in front of her was.

“Morning Mom” Mae said with a yawn.

“Afternoon, sweetie” Candy corrected, still not looking up.

“Are you mad?”

Candy shook her head. “No. I was just worried. I really wish you’d called”

Yeah. That might have been a good idea. Mae rubbed her neck awkwardly. “Yeah, I wasn’t really thinking. Sorry about that”

“It’s alright honey. As long as everything’s okay?” Her mother asked. Maybe she smelled the grime. Or maybe she just noticed the uncomfortable air about Mae

“Pretty okay. I just spent the night at Bea’s, didn’t feel like walking home” Mae explained. And yet, her mother looked unconvinced. Dissatisfied even. Maybe she was having one of her mood swings. “What’s wrong?”

Candy sighed. “It’s nothing, Mae. Just me being silly”

“I like it when you’re silly. My silly mom”

Candy smiled. Okay, no mood swing. “I know I can’t keep tabs on you every night, but I worry anyway”

“Mom…”

“You’re my baby, and I love you. That’s all” Candy nodded with finality, smiling widely.

Aww. Anyone else who said they had the best mom ever was an effing liar. “I love you too, Mom. I’m gonna get going” Mae said.

“Any chance I could hear what the plans are for today?” Candy asked as Mae was already turning to leave.

Mae hesitated. “No idea. Thinking of going to the dump with Gregg”

“It’s a scrap yard, sweetie”

“That’s just a bigger name for dump”

Candy chuckled. “Good point. Well stay safe out there”

“Will do!” Mae gave a quick wave and hurried off, jogging through the foyer.

One half of her mind wanted to get the day rolling, but the other reminded her that she was an adult, and she should at least thank Pastor K for the… well for not throwing her out really.

Mae peeked into the chapel, and spied that as usual the place was completely devoid of life aside from the pastor sitting on a bench at the front looking far too nice to be found in a place like this. Church stuff was really only during the mornings, so maybe she just missed it.

Mae entered the row of benches behind Pastor K and leaned over hers.

Pastor K looked up from her book to smile at Mae. “Good afternoon, Mae. Sleep well?”

“The usual” Mae shrugged.

Pastor K’s smile faded ever so slightly. “The last I heard, your ‘usual’ sleeping habits gave you migraines and ended with you in the hospital”

Oh right. Mae should talk about sleeping more often. “Sort of. I used to just get these weird dreams, and now I still get them but…”

“But?”

“They’re just dreams now” Mae explained.

“Just dreams?” Pastor K asked.

Mae shrugged again. “Just dreams with good music”

“Huh” Pastor K hesitated. Yeah that probably sounds weird. “Well if you ever want to talk-”

“I visited Andy yesterday” Mae said, pulling herself over the bench to take a seat beside the Pastor.

“Andy Cullen” Pastor K nodded as if to confirm she’d been listening last time.

Mae nodded. “Right. So like, I thought maybe going over and saying sorry for the whole baseball thing would help make it less awkward?”

“And?” The pastor urged her on.

“Well I don’t really know what to think anymore. He was still mad, and like… I don’t know. It feels like I ruined his life”

Pastor K took a moment. She was looking at her like Bea had been. “That doesn’t sound like a bit of a stretch to you?”

Mae sighed loudly. “Yeah it does, but like… even if I didn’t actually ruin his life, his life is still all shitty and he blames me. And it doesn’t really feel like he’s wrong. Like yeah he’s bitter but I’d be mad at me too”

Wow. That was depressing. Though to be fair she’d be mad at herself like all the time if she didn’t always occupy herself.

“Hm” Pastor K thought it over a moment. “Well, I think you did the right thing”

“Yeah but he still hates me”

“Did you think he wouldn’t hate you?” Pastor K asked.

Mae shrugged. “Kinda? I was hoping anyway”

Pastor K shut her book and set it down beside her. “There’s not really a miracle cure here, Mae. What’s important is that you owned up to what happened and did what you could to make it better. Sometimes that’s all we can hope for”

Mae hesitated. The two of them stared at each other. How exactly was she supposed to answer that? She settled on “That’s depressing” 

Pastor K chuckled lightly. “Yeah, a little. But I think it takes courage to do that anyway”

“Courage” Mae put her hands to her hips. She liked the sound of that. Courageous Mae.

“Yep. You took the high road here” Pastor K said.

Mae’s arms immediately fell back to her sides. “Oh. I hate the high road”

“It’s not so bad. Just takes a little extra effort”

Mae hopped up from the bench, quite effectively checked out of the conversation. “Well I sure had a great sleep! I’m gonna get going!”

Pastor K smiled while picking up her book again. “Have a good day, Mae”

Back outside, back down the hill. It was a good way to really wake her up. Like, climbing up the hill was exhausting, so this was pretty much the reverse. Running down the hillside and nearly falling over probably had something to do with it.

Seriously though, just what exactly were we doing today? “I guess the dump’s not a bad idea”

They’d planned to go check it out like a month ago, but on account of just how busy Mae and Gregg were doing literally anything else they hadn’t gotten around to it.

Passed the ever familiar statue out in towny center and ever so briefly lamenting the tragedy that was Anselm Borowski. Down the road to the woah woah wait.

Mae backed up, pressing her face up to the glass window of the Ol’ Pickaxe. Closed. It said closed. Why was it closed? Bea said she was working.

But then, Bea was known to lie. But then why would she say not to come by if Mae would just see the closed sign anyway? So Bea must still be inside, just being secretive. She was probably dealing drugs in there. The Ol’ Pickaxe was easily in Mae’s top five places where drugs were probably made in town. Bea the meth cooker. Bea-ler the dealer.

What bullcrap. Bea was holding down  _ two _ jobs and Mae couldn’t get one. She hadn’t even offered it. Maybe Mae wanted to cook drugs too. Maybe she cou- Oh it’s unlocked.

The door to the Ol’ Pickaxe swung closed behind her, and Mae immediately went about checking behind the counter. No hidden drugs here. Also no one actually working the counter, though there was plenty sounds of exertion coming from the back room.

Yep. Drugs, easy. Keeping them up front would be too simple. Well this sorta worked out, Mae always wanted to try drugs but always sorta chickened out. At least, she would have if she’d ever been offered any. No excuses anymore.

The rotary phone sitting on the front counter rang with a painfully obnoxious sound. And here Mae thought they only made that noise in movies. Well, no one was here, so...

“Hello?” Mae asked, picking it up.

Rapid approaching footsteps sounded from the back room, and over the phone Mae heard Mr. Santello’s voice. “... Mae?”

Bea appeared out of the back faster than Mae had ever seen her move. In a split second, the phone was torn from her hand. “Hey, what’s up? Yeah, I’m working on it. One second” Bea spoke into it, stopping just briefly and putting her hand over the receiver while glaring at Mae. “What are you doing here?” She whispered.

“Drugs”

“What?”

“Nothin’. Just wanted to come say hi” Mae grinned.

“Well… Hi” Bea said, uncovering the receiver and preparing to speak into it again. Then she spied Mae still being here, and whispered “Leave”

Mae’s grin fell. “Aw come on”

“Mae-” Bea said, then immediately mentally chastised herself. She covered the phone’s receiver again and whispered “Mae, seriously, you visit like every day. I told you I need to focus. Go” 

“Yeah but like-”

Bea turned away, pacing around behind the counter while speaking into the phone. “No dad, no one’s here… I just said I’m working on it. Not my fault Creek called out”

“Like, ‘Creek’ Creek?” Mae asked, finger quoting.

“There’s only one” Bea mumbled back. “No, not you dad. Look, I’ll call you back in a minute. One- it’s one minute!” She groaned, and finally set the phone back down onto its stand.

Being able to slam a phone down like that… Mae could totally see why you’d keep a rotary phone in this day and age. Couldn’t get that audible slam anymore. So satisfying.

“So… you’re still busy” Mae said.

Now free from the phone’s cord, Bea was still just pacing behind the counter. “No shit?” Looking increasingly frustrated, at that.

God, this girl needed a break. There should really be a law about how many days in a row you could work sort of but not really full time.

Mae hopped up and took a seat on the counter. “So weird question, I was just wondering when we’re gonna go on that roadtrip?”

“Roadtrip?”

“Yeah, the one we said we’d do before?” Mae specified.

“I said maybe. And I said maybe in a year. Not now” Bea explained. Then she disappeared into the back again, back to… whatever it was she was doing.

“Cop out!” Mae yelled after her.

“Look I’m working on it alright? Like, right now! Working! I’m trying to do that!” Bea yelled back. 

Mae groaned and pulled herself over and behind the counter. “Yeah but like, you’re  _ always _ working!  How are you ever gonna get time off to-”

Bea swung her head around the corner, glaring. “Mae, I said I’m working on it. I actually have other things I need to worry about, so please, just for today, go do  _ anything _ else” she said, before disappearing into the back again.

Mae followed without and hesitation. “Alright, sorry, geez. It just feels like nothing’s actually gotten better here, and like… I don’t know. Maybe by now your dad would have gotten it together” she said.

Besides the hall in the back, Bea had disappeared into an offshooting room stacked high with shelves. Every shelf with a cardboard box, every box with a label. All numbered labels, too. Guess it was apparently too much to ask just to have the names of what they were filled with on them.

Bea took hold of a palm-sized device, not too dissimilar looking from a smartphone. It might have been impressive if it specifically didn’t look like a smartphone from maybe ten years ago. Wow, ten year old smart phones. And Possum Springs didn’t even have those. Depressing.

Mae didn’t actually see what Bea was typing into it, mostly because when she tried to peek, Bea aimed the it at her eyes and the small a small red light of a barcode scanner ever so briefly blinded Mae.

“Believe it or not, our little ghost hunting adventure didn’t magically make my dad any better” Bea said, setting it down now that Mae had, for just a moment at least stopped.

“You know you suck, right?” Mae asked, rubbing her eyes clear. “And yeah, I know, but like… I just figured you’d have put your foot down by now. Personal growth and all that. Weren’t we supposed to have personal growth? We almost  _ died _ . So like, I figured you’d quit already or-”

“Mae!” Bea had only just grabbed a box from the shelf and slammed it down onto the ground, the sound of which silenced the feline’s chatter. Bea knelt down and drew a box cutter from her pocket to open it up. “Do you seriously want to do this? Huh? This conversation again?”

Mae stared a moment. Well, last time… she didn’t like thinking about last time.

“... No”

“Then  _ please _ , just effing leave. We’ll talk later”

And Bea was back to slicing the box open. It was probably the most menial thing she’d do today and Mae somehow made it a chore.

Mae scratched the back of her head. Felt warm. Bad. “Alright… Fine. Talk later”

She waved, Bea didn’t wave back. Right. Okay, leaving. Mae was out the door within the next fifteen seconds.

Down the street, just… away. Geez, how did that even happen?

This is what you get for visiting her when she doesn’t want to be visited. Bet Bea hated surprise parties too. Okay, whatever, it’s fine. Girl’s having a hard day. You’ll do something nice for her later. Get her a gift. Like… whatever the hell she likes. What does Bea like?

Mae poked her head through the front door of the Video Outpost Too, immediately asking “Hey, what does Bea like?”

Angus, standing behind the counter, barely had any time to register Mae’s sudden arrival, let alone the question. “Uh… history?” He answered.

Mae thought it over a moment. “Eh” She said before leaving just as quickly as she’d come in.

Well that was no help. Angus was an absolute sweetheart but clearly he was no Bea expert. You’ll have to figure this one out yourself, Borowski. We’ll figure this out… later.

Only a short while farther down the road. And Mae was shoving the door to the Snack Falcon open, arms raised.

“Yooooo-! Oh hey Germ” she said. Gregg was at his usual spot behind the counter, while Germ was surprisingly here as well. Just standing off to the side with a soda bottle in one hand and a crumpled receipt in the other.

“Hey” he said. Classic Germ. Truly a treasure.

Gregg on the other hand was sporting his usual grin from the moment Mae entered. “What’s happening dude?”

Mae put her hands to her hips, declaring “Us. We’re happening today. And what’s happening is the dump”

“Oh finally! I thought you forgot!” Gregg yelled. He was over the counter in less than a second.

“I forgot a lot of things about that night” Mae nodded admittedly, smirking. “But a dump promise is like a blood pact. We’re so going”

“Hey Germ, wanna come along to the dump?” Gregg offered.

Germ shrugged. “Eh”

Oh wait, right, Mae had a bone to pick with Mr. Warfare here. “Hey, why weren’t you at band practice yesterday?” She asked.

“I’m not in the band” 

“Yeah but you always show up. You’re like a groupie or something” Mae said. Germ had no reply. Mae looked to Gregg who was equally quiet. “That’s what a groupie is right?” She asked.

Still, no answer. Just the two of them staring at her.

“Why is that a stupid question!?” Mae yelled.

* * *

“So I’m pretty sure they’re secretly going out now” Mae finished, balancing on the metal rails of the track tracks as they walked.

Gregg nodded along. “Oh yeah, definitely”

“I bet they’ll get married on that stage, with all those pigeons as the guests” Mae went on.

“Dude you’re gonna have to prepare a speech” Gregg pointed out.

“Oh. Crap. I can’t do speeches”

Germ shook his head. “Speeches are easy. Everyone has to listen. You can say whatever you want”

Germ dishing out the wisdom as usual. Mae shook her head. She really should’ve figured that out back in high school. Would have been way easier for presentations. “Huh. Never thought of it that way”

The three finally stepped away from the train tracks they were following and came to a stop before the Possum Springs Scrap Yard. A scrap yard that had an awful lot of trash at that, considering that no one actually gave much of a shit what got thrown in it.

Gregg nodded approvingly at the sight of stacked metal cars littered about. They were nothing compared to all the garbage that cluttered the area, but much more impressive to look at. “Welp. Dump”

“Behold the wonder” Mae added.

Germ shrugged. “Yep”

“So what are-?” Gregg started to ask.

She could probably guess the rest, but Mae didn’t actually hear what Gregg said after that on account of sprinting straight into the yard of discarded objects and broken items. This place had to be littered, pun definitely intended, with goodies. Mae liked goodies. “Grab anything that isn’t nailed down!” She yelled back.

That was about the plan, yeah. Well not anything that wasn’t nailed down. Pretty much nothing was nailed down out here so that’d be a lot. Also most of this stuff was absolutely gross, but you could find plenty of interesting gems out here. The thin layer of snow over everything helped. Kept the bugs off all this stuff.

Mae could be a dumpster diver. She knew that wasn’t a real job but she could still do it.

Naturally the very first thing she herself picked up was a baseball bat half sticking out under a stack of cars. She was practically a magnet for these things. Bats just sorta existed around her. Not a bad superpower to have. “Found a bat!” She yelled.

From somewhere unseen off on the opposite side of the dump, Gregg yelled back “Of course you did! That’s your thing!”

“That’s just what I was thinking!” Mae yelled back.

Okay, definitely hanging onto this. Well, she wasn’t actually going to dig through the trash itself while there was plenty of good scrap to check. Over by an old mannequin was a toolbox, one that Mae tugged at several times only to find her small arms were no match for Mjolnir or whatever the hell was inside this thing keeping her from picking it up. It was  _ heavy _ . Well, she definitely couldn’t show the others this box. If they could move this toolbox and she couldn’t, her ego wouldn’t be able to survive the shame.

What else… well sticking out of a pile of garbage itself was a cardboard box half rotted through, and what remained of it looked like it was filled with little metal… cylinders. Honestly they were probably deodorant or something. She’d never know. Mae was not touching that box. She’d probably get a disease or something.

“I found some binoculars!” Gregg yelled from wherever he was.

“Nice!” Mae yelled back.

The gentle sound of shattering glass was then heard in Gregg’s direction, followed by the sound of “Shit! I mean I found a monocular!”

“Even better!” Mae yelled again. “Hey Germ, you find anything yet?!” She called.

“Nope”

Mae very nearly jumped out of her skin as Germ’s voice came from about two feet behind her. And… there he was. Just standing there. Had he just followed her this whole time? “God, someone needs to put a bell on you!” Mae hissed.

“Uh, Mae?! I found something!” Gregg called.

“Yeah?!”

“I think you should come over!” He called again.

Well, this had to be good. Mae waved for Germ to follow along, and quickly began running through the Maze of Broken Shit, or MOBS for short. She made that abbreviation too, just because that’s how efficient she was being today.

Mae also didn’t actually know where Gregg was, but this place was only so big even if it was filled with garbage, metal, and goodies everywhere.

Actually this wasn’t working. Well, not working fast enough. Mae climbed up the side of the next car stack, despite the numerous creakings of complaint it gave off. The rusting metal also didn’t exactly feel great on her fingers, but as long as she wasn’t bleeding it’d be fine.

And finally when she and Germ arrived at the top of the pile, they came face to face with Lori Meyers, sitting a ways away on top of a stack of tires at a similar height. In her lap was a decently sized stack of papers that looked freshly ripped from a notebook. Down on the ground below her was none other than Steve effing Scriggins, currently in an argument with Gregg about… something. Lori herself looked… less than comfortable with this.

“Hey Lori” Germ gave a quick raise of the hand. Lori nodded to him.

“You know Lori?” Mae asked.

Germ shrugged. “I know a lot of people”

“Hey Lori is Steve bothering you?” Mae called over.

“He’s… uh, like…” Lori started, stopped, and repeated that several times over all while taking some  _ very _ deep breaths.

Down below, Steve gave Gregg a shove when the latter had tried getting up in his face.

Oh hell no. Mae hopped down and was immediately stomping up to him, shoving Steve into the hood of an old car. “Get out of here Steve!”

Steve gave a frustrated groan. “Oh Christ more of you ladies? I was here first!”

“Yeah well I saw Lori first, so dibs!” Mae declared, crossing her arms.

Steve stood up straight and wiped himself off. For just a moment he looked about ready to pick a fight until Germ and Gregg took their spots as Mae’s side. “Pretty sure I saw her first!”

“Lori, which one of us saw you first?” Mae called up to the currently hyperventilating girl.

“Uh… I…”

“See? I did!” Steve said.

“That doesn’t mean anything! I’ve known Lori for like two months!”

“Well  _ today _ I saw her first, so screw off!”

“Germ where’d I leave that bat?” Mae asked. Germ shrugged. “I’m gonna knock your skull off, Steve!” She yelled.

“That doesn’t even make sense!” Steve yelled back.

“It will when you don’t have a skull so your stupid brain has some room to grow!” Mae yelled again, now looking through a trash pile as she spoke to find something to whack this guy with. She’d take a stick to be honest.

Steve gave a huff. “Man, screw this. You ladies do what you want, she ain’t worth my time anyway” he said, muttering several expletives under his breath as he sauntered off.

“Go to hell, Steve!” Mae yelled after him, grabbing a tire iron from the ground and and throwing it after him. It didn’t even fly half the distance it would have needed, but throwing something made her feel better.

“Back at ya!” He yelled back on his way out of view.

Mae glared after him the whole way, while Germ walked up beside her to the base of the tire pile. “You okay?” He asked up to Lori.

Lori only gave a few nods, still breathing like a tired dog.

“So what was he actually doing?” Mae asked, taking a seat on the car hood she’d just pushed Steve into.

Gregg shrugged, taking a seat beside her on the hood. “I think he was flirting with her? I don’t know”

“Seriously?”

Lori took a deep breath, trying to level herself out. “He hits on some of the girls in my class” she gasped out.

“That’s got you all worked up?” Mae asked.

“No one hits on me!” Lori called down. Aww, that was kind of adorable in a sad way.

Mae smiled anyway. “See Lori? I told you you were cute!”

Gregg shook his head. “I don’t know dude, I wouldn’t want Steve to think I was cute”

“Oh god stop” Lori pleaded, only getting more worked up.

“But she  _ is _ cute right?” Mae asked.

Germ shrugged. “Like, cute how? Like girlfriend cute or dog cute?”

“Like a pet rabbit cute” Mae specified. “Like the hugging and feeding kind”

“Oh no no stop” Lori hugged her stack of papers to her chest, trying to calm her breathing.

“It’s a compliment!” Mae called up.

“What’s that?” Germ asked. He pointed to the papers Lori was holding onto, bringing everyone’s attention to them.

She hesitated, then held them so the three could see their contents. Just… a ton of writing. Not exactly legible at this distance, but it was a ton still. “I uh… I come out here to write now since the roofs in town are too slick”

“Like, for your movies?” Mae asked.

Gregg looked between the other three in complete confusion. “What movies?” He asked.

An idea entered Mae’s fiendish little mind. She grinned knowingly at Gregg.

* * *

 

The phone was going off again. Not so long ago, Bea had asked Mae to burn this building down. Well to be fair she’d been joking but honestly it didn’t sound like that bad of an idea. The money from the insurance would get them through at  _ least _ a few months.

Until the day that happened though, she had a phone to answer. Bea set down the tools she was reorganizing and wandered up to the front of the store, picking up the phone on its very last ring.

“What, what is it dad?” She answered.

It had been a complete guess, but she was right. Her father answered “How are things coming?”

Bea rolled her eyes, wrapped the phone cord around her finger and leaning on the counter. “As good as they can be. You know, one person working eight hours to do the work of three people…”

“I don’t need the snark” Her father remarked.

“Right”

Maybe he didn’t need it, but he definitely deserved it. Well if that was all, Bea had a lot to get back to..

“So… Mae visited earlier? Again?” Her father asked.

Bea quit curling the cord and hesitated. God. Dammit. “No, she-”

“I heard her, Beatrice” Mr. Santello said. Great. Wonderful. Effing Mae.“Look I don’t mind if your friends want to stop in, but we have things to do”

“I know, I got rid of her”

“Didn’t think to call me back afterwards?”

Actually in all fairness Bea had made the point to not call back. “It… took a while”

“Bea, I really need you to work with me here. What you do outside of work is your own business, but while you're there you need to make it clear to your friends that you have things to do” He explained, probably sitting on his fat ass as they spoke. Bea quietly nodded which didn’t translate through the phone well. “Do you hear me?”

“Yes” She answered icily.

“So you’ll talk to her?” He asked. If only it mattered. Trying to explain this to Mae was like beating her head against a particularly stupid brick wall. “Beatr-”

“Fine” Bea answered. A moment later, the line went dead as her father hung up. Right, busy busy busy.

Just make Mae leave her alone at work. If that was even possible to do. Easy… bet Mae’s off thinking about this morning right now.

* * *

“...and this one’s yours” Lori handed Mae the last of the handwritten scripts. It was kinda nice for the dedication it took alone.

Mae gave the cover a quick look over. “I get to be the monster? Sweeeet. Hey why don’t you have a script?”

Lori shrugged. “I’m the director. I’m not acting this time”

“I thought you wanted to use that awesome scream you have?” Mae asked.

Lori made her way over to the stack of discarded tires she’d been sitting on, climbing back up. “Well yeah I do but I can just scream from over here. I need to be able to see everything”

“Hey, why does Mae get to be the monster?” Gregg asked, a script in one hand and a broken flashlight in the other. Or… maybe that was the ‘monocular’ he’d found. Made. Whatever. Either way it was broken.

“Bias” Lori said outright.

“That’s my girl” Mae nodded, grinning. “So when do we-”

“Action!” Lori screamed as loud as her little lungs could manage.

“Oh crap okay uh… okay” Mae hastily read over her part, looked around in a panic, then ran over to a stack of destroyed cars and full speed launched herself into its open window. Gotta hide like a good monster.

“Wait am I on scene or do I have to walk on?” Gregg asked.

“You’re on! Go!” Lori yelled down.

“Okay. Okay” Gregg took a deep breath turning to Germ. “I don’t know about this Franky! Breaking into the school is one thing, but the teacher’s lounge?”

Germ put on his smoothest, and by extension creepiest nice guy voice. “Don’t worry about it baby, no one’s gonna bother us in here”

“But I’ve been hearing some strange- Wait am I a girl?” Gregg interrupted himself to ask.

“Own it, Gregg!” Mae yelled from where she was hiding.

“Right” Gregg took a deep breath, and continued in a significantly higher pitched voice. “But I’ve been hearing some strange noises!”

Mae gurgled as loudly as she could, which quickly descended into choking noises, which quickly descended into  _ real _ choking noises before she coughed some air back into her lungs.

“Yeah, that” 

“Baby you’re worrying too much!” Germ flexed in as sleazy a manner as possible, glancing back to his script. “Let’s get…  Lori this is inappropriate”

“Just skip that part!” She yelled over.

“What? Let me see” Gregg reached for Germ’s script only for Lori to again call over ever so slightly embarrassed.

“Don’t look! Mae you’re up!”

Gregg checked his own script for the scene instead, stopping on a different complaint. “Hey wait, it says here Mae’s going to bite me. She’s not really going to bite me, is she?”

“She can just be super gentle” Germ shrugged.

“I didn’t agree to that! Mae bites hard!” Gregg went on, a bit more panicked.

“Hey!” Mae yelled from where she hid.

“You do though” Germ called over, nodding in agreement.

Lori shrugged. “We can just find her some fake teeth or-”

“That doesn’t make her bite softer! When Mae bites, people bleed” Gregg explained, somewhat panicked. He saw what happened to people. Bad things. Bad things happened.

“I don’t bite people!” Mae yelled again.

“You definitely do bite people” Germ replied, yet again.

Gregg shook his head. “I just don’t think-”

“Action!” Lori cried, silencing the whole of the argument.

Mae leapt from the scrap car window on her second attempt, after the first had her pant leg catch on the door and leave her dangling. She bounced over to Gregg, leapt upon him as a beast should and… bit into his sleeve.

She both growled and let out a muffled variation of “See? You suck” while doing so.

“Ah oh gods, you’re ripping out my insides, oh my… a-or-ta?” Gregg said, glancing to his script.

Mae let go of Gregg’s arm just long enough to ask “Really?”

“That’s what it says” Gregg held the script so Mae could read it.

“Sweet” Mae nodded approvingly, then biting onto his sleeve again. Mae fully tackled Gregg down, only for the latter to hit his head on something very solid.

“Ow, wait, ow!”

Mae let go of him just long enough to spy an ever familiar toolbox stuck in place on the ground where she was trying to murder Gregg on. Okay seriously this thing was being a dick.

“Hold on, the stupid thing won’t budge” Mae groaned, standing up and helping Gregg do the same before wandering over to grab her bat, propped up on a nearby car.

“Just act around it!” Lori called down.

Mae shook her head. “No no I got this, lemme just…”

Mae wound up and delivered a solid whack to the toolbox. It didn’t budge from where it was sitting, apparently glued to the ground by a few years worth of grime, but the top  _ did _ spring open. Mae and Gregg stood in silence staring at its contents. Content. One thing.

“What is it?” Lori asked. She hopped down from where she was seated and approached, as did Germ. They both had a similar reaction.

“Oh my god that’s a gun” Lori cooed. A handgun, big and black sat in the box before them..

“Like, a real one?” Gregg asked.

Mae shrugged. “I think so?”

“It’s real” Germ nodded in confirmation, coming over to join in the looking.

“Dibs!” Gregg cried, reaching for it before Mae smacked his hands.

“There is no way you’re touching that!”

“Dude, don’t you want to touch it?” He asked. Gregg knew her weakness. Her will. Her poor will. It didn’t exist.

Mae nodded. “Oh eff yeah. But like… no. There’s no way. I can’t”

“What do you mean?” Lori asked.

“Have you seen the stuff that happens around me?” Mae asked, crossing her arms. “If I touch that gun, there’s a one hundred percent chance one of us gets shot. Probably me”

Gregg shrugged. “Then I’m totally taking it”

“You already have a crossbow!” Mae cried.

“Yeah and now I’m gonna have a gun too!” Gregg answered, reaching for it again.

Mae snatched the handgun out of the toolbox, holding it awkwardly against her chest like she was cradling a baby. “Okay okay fine I’ll touch it” she mumbled.

It was… weird. Cold. This was probably a murder weapon or something. Why else would it be out here? This was evidence. That made it kinda cool. Also kinda terrifying.

Lori asked. “So?”

Mae switched to holding it by its actual handle, only slightly raising it from pointing off the ground. “It’s heavy”

“That means it’s loaded” Germ nodded again.

Mae shook her head. “Maybe I’m just weak. I’ve never held one of these things before”

Gregg nodded in agreement. “Yeah, maybe it’s just filled with mud or something. It’s been out here for who knows how many years”

Germ shook his head. “Nah. That’s loaded”

“How can you tell?” Mae asked.

The four of them went quiet. Apparently Germ just… knew. Somehow that was even creepier.

Lori whispered “Shoot something” as though they were sharing a secret.

“I’m not gonna shoot this!” Mae cried.

Gregg however was immediately onboard, yelling “Lori go pick something for her to shoot!”

“I’m not shooting it!” Mae cried yet again while Lori hurried off to find an object she wanted more bullety than it currently was.

This sucked. This sucked so badly. Mae liked everyone here, she didn’t want them dead. She also knew how these scenarios worked. One of them was totally gonna get hurt by the end of this. It was like fate with her.

“Don’t point it at anything you don’t want dead” Germ said, immediately attempting to calm her. At least someone was. Mae pointed the gun securely at the ground. “Perfect” He confirmed.

“It’s weird that you know this stuff” Mae mumbled.

“Eh”

“This! Aim for the head!” Lori yelled from where she was.

The three looked over to find Lori currently propping up a discarded road sign with a pedestrian crossing symbol on it. She set it up so it leaned against a stack of cars, pointed to the little fossil man’s head, and ran back over to the others, hiding behind Mae while watching intently.

“I’m super not cool with this” Mae mumbled.

Gregg shook his head, ‘tut tut tut’ing. “Mae Borowski, I will pull seniority on you if I have to. Shoot the crap out of that stupid sign”

“Okay. Okay” Mae took a deep breath, lifted the gun, and shut one eye to try and better aim it.

Her hands were shaking just a little, which probably didn’t help, but how hard could this be right? You just use the little sights on top. She’d done it a billion times in games.

It looked like it was lined up properly anyway, so Mae squeezed… them squeezed from more. Man, either these triggers were actually harder to pull than they looked or this one was just j-

And then a loud crack went off and Mae’s hands kicked back from the unexpected force. A loud  **PANG** sounded from the car the sign had been leaning against, accompanied by a light spark, followed by a  **THWIP** noise as a small bit of dirt between where everyone was standing was kicked up from where the ricochet landed.

Everyone had pretty much immediately stepped back from where the bullet landed, and Mae had just as quickly dropped the gun on the ground. Her hands were in the air and she was walking away from it. No longer part of this. Out. She out. “Okay I’m done! I’m done! I’m not touching it anymore!” she yelled.

“Mine” Germ commented, immediately scooping the murder tool up.

“Keep it, I don’t even care”

Gregg shook his head with some disapproval. “You’re bad luck, dude”

Mae shivered. “Yeah I’ve been getting that feeling”

Lori was busy controlling her breathing again, mumbling “I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m okay” over inbetween her gasps.

* * *

 

“We’re closed” Bea called from the back. God, if this was Mae again she might literally figuratively throw something. Bea wiped her hands off and rounded the corner into the front of the store where the door had just opened, only to freeze at the sight of her best friend of the last eight years or so. “Oh, what’s up?”

Angus tipped his hat apologetically. “I can come back tomorrow if-”

“Nah, it’s fine. I can do one sale. What do you need?” Bea said, approaching the counter.

“Gregg’s not home yet and he’s got the screwdriver. Figured it’s about time we both had one anyway” Angus approached opposite her.

“Flat or phillips head?”

“Doesn’t matter”

“Phillips it is” Bea said, quickly disappearing into the back again and emerging a second or two later with the requested screwdriver.

Angus gave a quick “Thanks” as Bea went about ringing it up and bagging. Not that a bag was needed, but she was mostly on auto pilot for work.

“I’m about done here anyway. Come on, I’ll drive you back” Bea offered, stepping it from behind the counter.

“You don’t have to”

“It’s fine, really. I could use a little Angus time right now” Bea fished out her keys and lead them both out front, unlocking the car.

“What’s that mean?” Angus asked, pulling himself into the passenger seat”

Bea mirrored the action on her side.“Talking with someone who doesn’t say a thousand words a minute”

Angus nodded. “I understand completely”

Bea slid the keys in the ignition, or at least tried to before they slipped from her hands. She groaned, grabbed them from the floor and tried again. They went in, she turned, the engine revved… and didn’t start. Bea tried again with a similar result, now clenching her teeth. On the third time the sedan finally rumbled to life, Bea gripping the wheel like she was about ready to tear it off.

“You alright? I haven’t seen you like this since middle school” Angus asked, eyebrow raised.

Bea waited a moment, then actually did make a tug on the wheel. Just something to vent. When that didn’t work, she punched it, making it give out a quick honk to the otherwise quiet neighborhood. “When was I like this in middle school?” She asked.

“When Mae stopped talking to you and you started talking to me” Angus explained.

Really. Go figure.

“I don’t know” Bea sighed, leaning forward against the wheel. Then she pressed her forehead against it, glaring at the floor while the horn blared. “She’s just so goddamn stupid”

“You don’t mean that!” Angus called over it.

Bea lifted her head off it and went about starting the car again. “You know I do”

“Okay, yeah you do”

The sedan pulled out, and down the road the two of them went. At least at this hour the roads were relatively empty. Perks of living in a small town during the holiday season.

“How do you deal with Gregg?” Bea asked.

“‘Deal with’ him?” Angus adjusted his glasses.

“When he pisses you off. When he’s so busy bouncing off the walls that he can’t stop and think like an adult for a second”

Angus shrugged. “I love Gregg. Stuff like that comes up all the time, it just doesn’t really matter” he said. Bea seemed… less than satisfied. “Guess that doesn’t really help”

Bea rolled her window down completely, pulling a cigarette from her pack. When they came to a stop at the next light, she glanced over to Angus. “Do you mind?”

“Go ahead” he waved her on.

Bea lit her cigarette, took one breath of it, and held it out the window while they continued on. “I missed this” Bea sighed, breathing out a puff of smoke. “We never get to talk anymore”

Angus nodded, rolling down his own window. “Things have been busy”

“Beyond busy” Bea replied.

The sedan pulled up in front of Angus’s apartment building and came to a stop on the side of the road. Yet, he didn’t make any move to leave the car.

“What’s eating you? Really” he asked.

Bea turned the car off and sat back, getting comfortable. “I don’t know. I think I’m screwing this up”

Angus smiled. “Oh don’t worry about that. You’re doing fine”

“How do you figure?”

“I was there yesterday. I saw you put in the effort” he pointed out. It was kind of nice. Angus was like a dad who was actually proud of her.

And yet… Bea sighed, sticking her cigarette back in her mouth and crossing her arms. “Yeah. I guess”

Angus leaned forward in his seat to better look at her. “What’s really bothering you here?”

And Bea sat in silence. Angus did the same. It was their way. The two of them liked their quiet, and enjoyed their company. It was how they stayed friends for so many years. It was something Mae or Gregg could never supply.

Bea shut her eyes, as though ashamed “I don’t know if I’m gay” she said.

Angus tilted his head. “I’m pretty sure you’re not. Just bi is fine for-”

“Well I don’t know if I’m that either!” Bea groaned. She was angry, but not angry at him. Bea had a lot of better things to be angry about.

“Mae asked you out, and you said yes not even knowing if you were compatible?” Angus asked, eyebrow raised.

“Look, I don’t know. She was drunk, I didn’t think-”

“She was  _ drunk _ and you said yes?” Angus was even more surprised than she herself had been.

Bea leaned her seat all the way back, practically laying down and putting a hand over her eyes. “Oh god, haha, this is such an effing mess” she chuckled pitifully. “I’ve just never thought about… my preferences before. How she put it, it just… it made sense at the time”

“And now…?”

“It still makes sense. It’s just…” Bea trailed off, growing frustrated. She bit down on her cigarette. “I’m trying, alright? I’m trying to be a good girlfriend. But she makes it hard enough just being her  _ friend _ sometimes. It’s hard enough just dealing with her  **bullshit** …!”

Bea trailed off, taking a deep breath from her cigarette. Angus remained quiet. He let her vent. That was their way.

Bea pulled her seat up so she could exhale out the window again. “Without trying to pretend I’m all… lovey”

“So you’re… you’re just faking it?” Not that Angus was going to jump to conclusions, but that’s certainly what it sounded like.

Bea took the cigarette from her mouth and flicked it out the window. “Angus, I have no effing idea what I’m doing”

“I don’t think I have to tell you you shouldn’t be leading her on” He said.

Bea shook her head, staring out the side. That… just made her feel worse about it. Not that it was true, just… well it wasn’t anyway. “I’m not leading her on. I… I want this to work. I want to feel it. I’m trying”

“So then… do you feel anything?”

“... no. I don’t” Bea said. Yet if it was any lighter out, an ever so slight blush might have been visible. “Well, maybe, it’s like she… no, no no. I can’t”

“Come on, I want to hear it” Angus said through a smirk.

Bea gave Angus’s shoulder a playful shove, smirking. “Not on your life”

“When’s the next time we’ll get to talk like this?” Angus asked, now grinning. He  _ had _ to hear this. “I won’t tell Gregg”

Bea rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat. She thought about crossing her arms for maximum sass, but… “It’s hard being her friend sometimes, but other times… Alright, she had a bad day and I hated seeing her feel like shit yesterday. And even when she was annoying the hell out of me, when she was beaming it was just…” Bea trailer off, hesitating.

“Butterflies?” Angus asked, ever familiar.

“I don’t know! I’ve never had like, an actual relationship! And she asked to sleep over. I didn’t even know what to do. Like, it felt weird. How am I supposed to just sleep next to someone if I don’t even know I like them? I just thought as long as I’m putting the effort in I might as well, but she was way more into it than I was and it ended up being… I was  _ happy _ . Like, really happy, like… god, I’d do that again, you know?” Bea asked.

Angus was grinning that adorable smile of his, sitting patiently. He just didn’t want to ruin it if she had even another single word to say.

Bea sighed, smirking. “So you think I might have a little gay?”

“Eh” Angus tilted his head. “Just a  _ little _ gay. Give it a week and we’ll see if you need a prescription”

“Thanks doc”

The two sat in relative silence for a few moments, before Bea’s smirk cracked into a contained grin. Angus’s did as well and a second later the two had completely lost their composure. It started with Bea’s giggle, then Angus’s snorted, then the two completely broke into a laughing fit. To the dark streets outside the car, they’d have looked completely mental. Inside though for whatever reason the two just couldn’t stop, Angus, leaning back in his hair while Bea laughed with her head against the wheel.

“You tell no one!” Bea said through her last few chuckles, as it finally began to die down. Angus was holding his head, such that he didn’t think to defend himself when suddenly Bea’s arms were around him. She may not have been very hug prone, but it was hard not to be with Angus around. “Thanks, Angus” she said.

“Aw stop you’re making me blush” Angus patted her back, not exactly eager to stop her. It’d been years since he’d seen her so carefree. “Any time, Bea”

Bea started the car up again. “Alright, you’ve loitered in my car enough. Out with you” She shooed.

Angus nodded and stepped outside, waving his hat to her. “Gotcha. Have a good night, Bea”

“See you around” Bea called out to him, pulling back out into the road.

Angus headed inside, and Bea made a quick turn around to head back down the road towards home.

She parked down the road as was the usual, as also as was the usual all the spots near her apartment building had been taken. It was fine. Walking gave her time to… just think.

Mae Borowski.

That’s the topic anyway but what more was there even to say? Just… keep rolling with the punches? Hope things get better? When she thought of it like that it only made the situation sound worse than it was.

Bea shook the thought from her head and hit her floor number upon entering the elevator.

It’s fine.

Yeah. You can do this. Just… don’t be hard on her, and let’s see where things goes. She’s trying. You know she’s trying her ass off too. She’s always trying her ass off. She’s always-

The elevator doors opened, and Bea stepped out on her floor just as the front door to her apartment closed behind Mae exiting it. Okay. Speak of the devil.

Bea approached, scratching the back of her head. “Hey”

“Hey” Mae replied, wide eyed.

They stood in silence, both looking around awkwardly. Wait, what was she doing in the apartment?

“Were you just-”

“I gotta go” Mae answered before Bea could even ask.

Without another word, the more furry of the two was jogging down the hall to the elevator and hitting the button inside for the ground floor. She gave only a half-hearted wave as the doors slid shut, with Bea standing in complete confusion.

“Okay?” Well. That was weird to say the least.

Well… whatever. Trust her. Angus was right. This was going to work out. Bea nodded to herself and hurried inside.

* * *

 

“So what are you gonna do with that?” Gregg asked.

It had been a fair while since Lori separated from them to head on home, the day growing short. That just left these three to walk back into town, following the tracks.

Germ shrugged. He had a certain item from their misadventure tucked into his pants the whole of the way. “Dunno. Got ideas”

“I feel like I just gave a murderer his weapon back” Mae commented.

Germ thought it over and nodded. Fair worry. “Promise not to kill you”

“That’s all I need to know” Mae confirmed.

“What about me?” Gregg asked.

Germ gave a wave as they reached the spot he had apparently chosen to break off from them and head home, about a minute or so upon reaching town. He didn’t even say bye, just… off he went. Back to wherever he was from.

“Hey!” Gregg yelled after him, to no avail. Germ just kept walking. “This sucks! I can’t die to Germ! I’ll take dying to anything that’s not Germ!”

Mae shook her head disapprovingly. “You gotta visit his house some time. That’s what I did”

“It’s weird that he invited you over” Gregg commented.

Mae shrugged, and they kept walking. “I’m just a people person I guess”

“The best” Gregg nodded along.

And so they continued on. The tracks were closer to the west side, so they’d naturally be coming on Gregg’s home first. Probably for the best, Mae could use the time to think and they’d long since run out of things to talk about. Well… sort of.

Well Gregg could be pretty wise too. It was worth asking. Mae cleared her throat. “Hey Gregg? What’s Bea like?”

“Uh… Like, you?” He answered about as helpfully as Angus. Truly they were meant for each other.

Mae shook her head. “Not me. Stuff. Present stuff”

“Eh” They were rounding the corner already and coming up on Gregg’s apartment. “Presents are dumb, man. Do something nice she doesn’t expect. That’s how me and Angus are”

And just like that, Mae couldn’t help but grin. “Awww. You guys are adorable”

They came to a stop in front of Gregg’s apartment, where he finished. “It’s about knowing you care. See ya dude”

Gregg gave a quick wave, which Mae gladly returned, and hurried on inside while fishing out a screwdriver from his pocket.

And Mae… Mae just started walking. Huh. That sounded like a good idea actually, which she kind of didn’t expect. Not that she knew what sort of thing Bea would like her to do either, but it was a start.

Okay, let’s review our options. Bea likes… parties. Mae immediately crossed off this option. Okay what else? Me, obviously, everybody likes me. But she wasn’t sure if she was ready for  _ that _ yet. She didn’t even own lingerie, and she’d have to ask either Bea or her parents for money for the lingerie, so… no.

Well just veering off stuff Bea likes, what she  _ hates _ is her job. Mae knew that already.

Mae came to a pause partway down the hill, glancing up at Bea’s building.

Hm. Yeah, you can work with that. Time off shouldn’t be hard.

The elevator ride up was about as smooth as could be expected. God she hated elevators. Well that wasn’t fair, she just hated thinking about this. Wasn’t often she went to just talk with someone’s dad behind their back.

You know what? No, screw that. You’re a  _ great _ negotiator. This’ll be easy. Just… do what comes natural.

Mae rapped on the door and waited. From what she knew, Mr. Santello would still be on the couch, so… waiting. Yeah. She made a popping noise with her lips, read the Santello apartment number a few times, tapped her boots… heh. Shitty boots. Shitty working properly.

“Hey there Mae. Forget your toothbrush?”

“Nah, I didn’t bring it” Mae said, then instantly regretted saying. That definitely made her sound like a slob.

Mr. Santello looked her over briefly. “Still got your clothes from last night I see”

Oh god, she _was_ a slob. She really did smell didn't she? She should’ve changed before she came. Mr. Santello said nothing more about it.

He left the door open while he wandered back inside. “Well, come on in”

Mae breathed into her hand for a quick whiff. Hm. Not  _ too _ bad. Let’s not focus on that right now.

Mae shut the door behind her, following Bea’s dad in. She’d barely made it in before Mr. Santello had seated himself back in his indent on the couch. He fit it well.

Mae took a stool from the kitchen island and brought it around to sit on, watching along with him. Apparently the Santello family hated comedy because Bea’s dad wasn’t watching Garbo & Malloy either. Actually it was kind of weird that Mae considered that to the standard family show. She hadn’t seen it once back at college. Dad was getting to her.

Okay. Focus. Subtle, you’re good at subtle. Just be subtle. “So… working hard or hardly working?”

“Sorry?” Mr. Santello glanced at her.

“Nothing just… that’s a thing people say, right?” Mae asked.

Mr. Santello stared a moment, then went back to what he was viewing. “I guess”

And just as quick as it started, the conversation was over.

Okay, no, she could do this. Just be a bit more direct.

“How about that Ol’ Pickaxe, huh?” Mae asked.

“Eeyup” Bea’s dad answered.

“Pretty nice store”

“That’s the hope”

And it was done again. Geez, this guy was great at barely answering her.

Mae leaned forward in her seat, just barely entering the corner of Mr. Santello’s vision. “And Bea’s there like… every day”

Mr. Santello nodded. “She’s a good kid”

“She’s pretty amazing”

“Mhm”

And done again. Okay screw this guy.

Mae loudly cleared her throat. “So like… you still own the store?”

“Yep”

“And not Bea”

“Right” Bea’s dad glanced towards Mae again, looking only just slightly exacerbated. “What’s with the questions? Looking for a job?”

Actually yeah, but not tonight. “Uh… maybe? Some time, not now. Just like, I haven’t seen you around the store” Mae answered. Mr. Santello nodded quietly. “Like, ever”

“Mhm” he answered.

“So like, what do you do?” Mae asked.

Mr. Santello looked up again, a little less pleased. “Excuse me?”

“With the store I mean”

“I own it. I pay the bills” he answered matter-of-factly.

“You sign the checks and stuff?” Mae clarified. Last she heard Bea did all the budgeting. “And like, do you write those up or…?”

Mr. Santello groaned loudly and sat forward in his seat, looking directly at her. “What’s this about?”

“I thought Bea did the whole budgeting thing is all” Mae said ever so accusingly. “Seems like she does all the work around here”

“Mae, do you have a problem with how I run my store?”

“It just doesn’t seem fair that she’s in there everyday working her ass off and you’re here watching TV”

He huffed. “And what exactly do you do, Mae?”

Oh goody, she loved it when people pulled that card. Mae glared. “I don’t  _ pretend _ to be in charge. I don’t pretend to be a good person”

Mr. Santello shook his head, snickering. “Oh this is precious. Mae Borowski wants to lecture me on morality. The girl who put some kid in the hospital on a whim. The unemployed little shit known by everyone in town for how much she screws up” He said. Mae’s ears burned. If this were any other person… “ _ That _ Mae Borowski wants to lecture me on how I run my business and how I treat my daughter”

Mae hopped down from her stool, walking over to stand between Mr. Santello and the television. “Your ‘daughter?’ She practically takes care of  _ you _ !”

“Mae, I’m gonna have to ask you to mind your own goddamn business”

“Well I see where she gets her temper” Mae snarked, rolling her eyes.

Mr. Santello stood up, immediately reminding Mae of how small she was. “Get out of my house”

“It’s an apartment”

“Good, then you can find the door alright”

Mae stood her ground. But only for a moment. This wasn’t worth getting the police called on her. She hurried to the door, calling back “Fine! But you’re wasting  _ both _ your lives sitting on that couch, and Bea’s is still worth something!”

Screw this. Screw him. You’re better than this. Bea’s better than this.

Mae shut the door behind her since there was a good chance he’d be too busy on the couch to do so. Well, maybe. Nah, he definitely wouldn’t get up.

She turned to head to the elevator, and completely froze as she saw Bea exiting it and approaching.

Oh. Oh god. Oh crap. What did she just do?

“Hey” Bea said. She looked nervous too. That kinda evens it out.

Mae found an immediate interest in a ceiling tile. “Hey” she answered.

Bea glanced at the door. “Were you just-”

Abort abort abort.

“I gotta go” Mae said.

She hurried down the hall without another word. Into the elevator and immediately mashing the ground floor button with one hand while giving a halfhearted wave to Bea with the other. The doors slid closed, and Mae was safe. Totally safe.

One hundred percent safe.

Hm. Maybe it wasn’t too late to skip town.

* * *

Mae locked the door behind her. Ah, Home at last. Where you’re safe. Where you’re warm. Where there’s almost a certainty your girlfriend can’t strangle you. At least... not while people were watching.

Well the TV was on again, so…

Mae crossed in front of her dad, pulling herself up on the couch cushion beside him without so much as a word.

“There’s that independent young lady I’ve been hearing about” Stan said as she did, lowering the TV volume ever so slightly.

“Oh yeah, sorry about last night” Mae sighed.

Her dad chuckled. “It’s alright, kitten. You’re twenty, really I’m surprised you’re home as often as you are”

“That’s me. The model youth” Mae said. But the enthusiasm just wasn’t there tonight. She was a terrible model. Too round, too stupid.

Her dad lowered the volume again, looking over. “Well for a model youth, you’re looking awfully down”

Mae nodded quietly, trying to force herself to focus on the TV instead of the conversation. Now that, that was a whoppah.

Okay no this wasn’t going to work.

Mae scooched up against her dad’s stomach. “I think I screwed up today”

“What happened?” He asked.

“I don’t really know. Things were going alright yesterday, and now…” she trailed off. Where to even begin?

“Eh season?” Stan asked.

“Eh season” Mae nodded. “I keep trying to fix things lately, and it feels like they break more when I do”

Her dad mulled it over only a moment. Not the first time Mae had this problem. “Hm. Sounds like your answer’s right there”

“Just stop fixing things?” She asked.

Stan shrugged. “The best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one”

“Huh. Like that guy with the knife?” Mae asked.

Her father made a double take, looking very slightly concerned. “Uh…?”

“The one with the knife. The razor guy”

“Occam’s razor” He clarified.

Mae nodded, smiling. “Yeah that! I think I’d be more into philosophy stuff if there were more knives”

Stan made some sound, a mix of concern and confirmation. “I think that’s about enough stimulation for you tonight, kitten. How about you head up to bed?”

“Sure. Love ya model pop” Mae said, hopping off the couch.

“Love ya model youth” Stan replied, turning the TV back up.

Mae hurried upstairs, not even stopping to take off her boots before launching herself onto the mattress.

Well.  _ Then _ she took her boots off, but the point still stood. Boots off, covers up… more covers up… she practically wrapped herself into a Mae Blanket Burrito. She had to check her laptop, and right not every bit of protection would help.

Well she didn’t need to check… Okay, no, that would make it worse. It’s alright. You can do this. You guys are dating, you guys had a great day yesterday. It won’t be so bad.

With a deep breath Mae opened up her laptop. It took all of one second for Bea’s green light to send a message, and Mae promptly huddled her blanket tighter against her.

**B** : What the actual hell is wrong with you?

On second thought maybe we can just go to bed without the laptop tonight. Mae half shut it before another message came through, halting her.

**B** : I know you’re there. I saw you come online.

Not too late to just call it quits for today.

**B** : Mae I swear to god.

**B** : You are not worth all this effort. Answer me you shithead.

Another message was coming through already, and in a bit of blind desperation Mae wrote the only thing that came to mind that could possibly help.

**M** : i was just trying to help

Bea’s typing notification came up again. Followed by the notification saying she was erasing it. Followed by more typing, more erasing… then nothing. Just a long, tense feeling hang in the air.

And finally, Bea’s next message came through.

**B** : I know.

**B** : Don’t.

And just like that, Bea was gone for the night. Guess that means she’s… well she’s something. Not happy definitely. Probably mad, maybe some other stuff.

Mae groaned to herself and smacked her head onto the keyboard. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. So stupid.

The notification sound popped up again, and she reluctantly lifted her head to check. Oh, that hit sent to Angus.

**M** : hnbj

**A** : You okay?

Mae started typing, deleted it, started again… and shut her laptop.

Aw, no, don’t, he’s just trying to help.

Mae shook her head and opened it again. Might as well get this over with.

**M** : angus?

**M** : did I screw up?

**A** : I’m hearing from both of you right now that you did.

Well. Angus disappointed stung only a little less than Bea being angry.

**M** : i really tried today

**A** : It’s none of my business.

**A** : I trust you, Mae. Just be careful.

**M** : thanks

**A** : *tips hat*

**A** : Goodnight, Mae.

Okay. She could do without any messages today. Both Gregg and Lori were on, but Mae was far beyond wanting to talk to anyone else.

She shut her laptop and slid it over to the corner of her mattress, taking up residence on the opposite side. Yeah. This is better. Well now she was just staring at the ceiling, so it was only a little better. But a little better was still a little better, obviously, so that was good.

Damn. Maybe she should get a record player like Bea. She could find a ton of somber songs to fit nights like tonight. Mae could just look up music on her laptop but that didn’t really work the same way. Ruined the mood. Besides, someone might message her.

Hm.

She rolled over and reached both hands under her bed, digging around. A minute or two of rummaging and she pulled up an ever familiar far too large black shirt with an ankh on it.

Hmmm.

Okay, how’s this supposed to work? Well, based on the online videos…

Mae held the shirt to her face, gave one big sniff, and was immediately filled with… dust, really. Up her nose. Ugh. Right. Gotta wash this thing. That looked a  _ lot _ more comforting when people in movies did it. Here it was just…

Hmm.

Mae hugged the shirt against her chest a moment. Well, it wasn’t so bad.

Whatever. Mae lifted herself up just long enough to pull it on, the shirt again covering her from neck to knees. This thing was the friggin best. She pulled up her blanket and shut her eyes for the night, just to end today. It’s over now, today is done. You’re okay, Mae. You tried. You’re alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just noticed I end a seem to like ending chapters emphasizing that things are just sorta fine. Weird.
> 
> You know the drill. All characters should be people, yadda yadda, don't wanna make anyone a villain, yadda yadda. Bea's dad is a decent guy. That's all that should be important. A decent, definitely overtly defensive man who more than anything is embarrassed by his situation.
> 
> This chapter broke the running theme I had of wanting to have Andy appear briefly in EVERY chapter, at least by voice. Just plainly couldn't find a decent spot with him what with the aforementioned length issues. Probably for the best. After the next one, this is probably my second favorte chapter.


	4. 12/20, Day of Freedom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've noticed the second to last chapter is always my favorite. Now to be fair, the last one of The Perfect Storm was an epilogue, but it still counts. Because I said so.
> 
> This one had some issues too, in that I had planned out the start and end but NOTHING in the middle. I have gigantic walls of text from versions of this chapter that were cut. Literally an entire third cut. Twice, actually. I'm happier with the version I settled on. More somber.

Up early.

Well ‘early.’ It was morning. Early for Mae, anyway. Just couldn’t sleep. Up at 8 AM, and what is there even to do at 8 AM but lay in bed?

Of course Mae grew bored of that within fifteen minutes, and she was up to at least pace around her room. The sun didn’t pour in through her window, guess it only did that later in the day. Brooding really wasn’t her style. Must be the shirt. Maybe the whole ankh thing just made her naturally broody.

Well there was still stuff she could do. Not check her laptop, that thing was guaranteed to be filled with awkwardness, but other stuff.

A quick change of clothes in hand, aside from shirt, natch, and a quick shower finally helped get that stink off her and better wake Mae for the day. It also gave her an immediate sense of regrets when it was done and her fur was still damp afterwards, as was the usual. She still had no idea how _anyone_ in her family dealt with this besides just… well, dealing with it.

It being cold outside and Mae without any direction at the moment helped though. Gave her an excuse to go stand over the floor vent in her room where the heat pumped in.

Wow. Depressing. This whole morning was depressing. If someone watched her acting like this… well actually any assumptions they made would probably be true, but this was the first time they actually _looked_ true. The whole unemployed dropout thing, that is.

Mae shut her eyes, enjoying the heat from the vent. This thing was pretty great though. Yeah, she could probably ride this high for another hour or two.

A couple minutes later she was bored, and had retired back to bed. Not to sleep, mind you, but with journal in hand. About half a dozen failed attempts at drawing Andy later, Mae tore out the page and instead parsed for a new idea.

Well the dump was one. Little sketches of Lori’s monster and teeth. Inspiration took over and she drew herself mauling Gregg. Then inspiration took over again and she switched Gregg with Steve. Yeah, eff Steve.

Bea… uh…

Anyway, no drawings of Bea today. Let’s see, there’s… Bea’s dad. No to that, too.

Well the other day had been good. Visited her rats with Gregg and… moving on. Well that night had been good at least, she had… god dammit.

Okay. Let’s think. What else can we do today?

Mae shut her journal and pulled up her laptop just for a moment to check the time. If it was late enough maybe no one else would be around to talk.

8:56 AM.

Okay, gonna go crazy in here. Mae shut her laptop, ignoring the new messages she had waiting. So, what else can we do this morning?

Food would be good. Haven’t eaten since the chips from the Snack Falcon yesterday, and those were stale so they didn’t count.

Pants on, Bea’s shirt on. Bea’s shirt was still too long, and maybe she should’ve tucked it into her pants but Mae already refused to do any tucking for formal events so she sure as hell wasn't going to do it today. Boots on… no, not those, the good boots. The shitty boots. The… the old ones.

Down in the kitchen, Candy was already up and… will not really about. She was up anyway, and that was the important part. She was also waiting on a coffee pot to finish, and was slumping in her usual seat at the table. She barely even raised her head as Mae entered the kitchen. “Morning honey. Up early?”

“Couldn’t sleep” Mae said. She then immediately began raiding the fridge. Oh sweet, they had whipped cream. If Mom wasn’t standing right there Mae would already be filling her mouth with it.

What else...

“If you’ve been having sleeping troubles again…” Her Mom said from where she sat. Oh, right.

Mae waved the concern off. “No it’s fine. It’s other stuff now. Had kind of a weird day yesterday”

Okay what else? What really counted as breakfast food? Eggs, definitely, but that’d take a few minutes and Mae was pretty sure she didn’t have the patience. Bacon she _did_ had the patience for, which was a shame because they had none.

“Mm” Candy mumbled, eyeing her daughter. “Isn’t that your friend Bea’s shirt?”

“Yeah. I stole it” Mae admitted outright.

There was some leftover Chinese food, that was good pretty much all the time. There was milk for cereal… did they even have cereal? She’d have to check the pantry, which immediately plummeted Mae’s desire for cereal.

The toaster popped up, and Candy stood to fetch the two halves of an English muffin from it. She offered one out to Mae while finally pouring coffee for herself.

Candy nodded knowingly, apparently okay with this. “Well as long as she’s okay with it”

Mae hesitated and took the half. These things were always better with butter, but by the time she’d finished this exact thought half of it was already in her mouth. “You know what stealing is right?” She asked with a full mouth.

Candy sat herself back down, returning to her book. “I just assume all your friends are okay with stealing things, sweetie” Candy said, shrugging.

“Oh come on”

Candy shook her head and smiled. “I don’t mind. You’re my little bandit queen and I’m detective Mom, remember?”

Mae put her hands to her hips. “I can be a bandit and a detective at the same time” she said matter-of-factly.

“Sure, why not?” Candy smiled and nodded at the notion. “So what happened?”

Mae internally sighed. Really didn’t want to get into this. She hopped up onto the counter and took her usual seat. “I don’t really know. I went and saw Andy the other day and… things didn’t go great”

“I haven’t gotten any calls, so things didn’t go horribly either, right?”

“I guess” Mae shrugged. Silver lining and all that. Well this was more of a bronze lining. Sucked too much for silver. “And then, yesterday… I don’t know. I tried to help out, and things got… weird”

“Weird how?” Candy asked. She stopped for the moment to take a sip of coffee.

God, don’t wanna be tempted. Coffee does bad things. Besides, Mae was now thinking back on how exactly to… like, where do you ever start with this?

Mae hopped down from the counter and instead sat at the table across from her mother, apparently drawing some interest in how unusual that alone was.

“... Mom, what sort of things did you do for Dad when you were first dating?”

Candy narrowed her eyes accusingly. She thought it over, and asked “Are you seeing someone, sweetie?”

“Uh, yeah?” Mae shrugged. Had she not mentioned this? She tugged on the ankh on her shirt, showing it off. “Bea. For like… a month I think”

Candy was immediately upright in her seat, eyes wide with excitement. “Oh honey, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought I did? I guess it never came up” Really, this was news to Mae. How had she not told _anyone_ in a month? Had Bea told her dad? Kinda hoped now that she hadn’t.

Candy put her hands together, practically bouncing in her seat. She hadn’t been like this since… uh… “Well your father was an absolute sweetie. When we first started dating, he wanted to take me out every week”

“Yeah I don’t think that applies to me” Mae said, kicking her legs.

Candy nodded along. “Of course not! It was a bit much, I had to set him straight”

“So what’d you do?”

“I sat him down and made him watch movies with me all night” Candy said, grinning widely.

Huh. Familiar. Like mother like daughter, huh? “Oh, I think I can do that. How’d that make him back off though?” Mae asked.

“Well it didn’t” Candy admitted. “But I think your father was trying too hard to impress me. It never hurts to just settle down and enjoy the moment. You should have seen him, he was so nervous…”

Nervous Dad… was such a thing even possible? Even in her earliest memories, her dad had been confident. Sometimes dangerously so. It just didn’t sound right. Maybe that Rosa woman had some stories about him too.

Still, that wasn’t exactly helpful. “And did he have like… any personal home issues?” Mae asked.

Candy stared, processing what exactly had just been asked. “... what?”

Guess not.

“Actually I’m gonna get going” Mae hopped up from her seat, stretching her arms, and quickly scarfing down what remained of her English muffin.

“Sweetie…” Candy stopped her just as she was wandering to the doorway.

“Yeah?”

Candy’s smile had gone. She was clearly choosing her words very carefully. “I don’t mind you dating a girl and all…”

Oh right, _this_ conversation. Now Mae was certain she’d never told her mom. She’d definitely remember hearing this whole thing. “Is it a problem?”

“No, just…” Candy thought it over a moment more. This whole conversation was about to start sucking. “... I still want grandbabies”

Wait. Oh no. No no no.

“Oh my god mom” Mae groaned as obnoxiously as she could.

“No excuses, missy. I want to hear the pitter patter of baby feet in this house again before I drop dead” Candy chastised.

Mae groaned yet again, rolling her eyes. “Can’t I just get a puppy or something?”

“No excuses”

“Fine, fine…” Mae threw up her hands in defeat. Whatever, she’d get a bunch of bulldogs if she felt like it. _Maybe_ one baby. Just for Mom.

Mae took a deep breath and hurried to the kitchen’s doorway, while Candy kept going. “So if you were going to adopt…”

“Okay great talking with you! Gotta go!” Mae yelled back, before running down the hall and out the front door.

Where? No idea. Anywhere not home.

Mae made it about halfway down to the sidewalk before finding herself laying on her back, the back of her head crying out in pain. Ow. Just effing _ow_. Was she bleeding? It… didn’t feel wet. Her snow coat must have kept her from hitting her head back in that college town, ‘cause now that she wasn’t wearing it falling hurt like hell.

Mae worked her way back up to her feet, nearly slipping again as her boots seemed to have a mind of their own out here in the snow.

Huh. Snow. It was snowing again. A gentle, barely noticeable snowfall, but it must have been going all night long what with how thick the layer of it over the neighborhood was. Not quite pure and untouched, Mae hadn’t gotten up early enough to see that, but several degrees better looking than when she was up late in the day.

Okay, where are we going today? Well there were really only two options, into town or… out of town to the bridge. Maybe check on Rabies. But Germ usually didn’t head out there this early, so Mae would have to see Rabies alone. She wasn’t sure if she could handle that. He was a married opossum now, didn’t have time for old acquaintances like her. He’d probably be a father soon too. God, Rabies has his whole life figured out better than Mae did.

She mulled this over while walking uphill into town. Yeah, better to leave Rabies alone.

Of course first things first, and the first of first things on Mae’s first list was the first house on the hill, where her favorite dorky convict who told poems was out sitting on the stoop. The two made eye contact as Mae approached, Selmers busy flicking a lighter open and closed.

“You don’t smoke, do you?” Mae asked.

Selmers shrugged. “Nah. Not for a long time. Still useful to keep a lighter on me though”

Mae went and took a seat on the stoop one step below Selmers’. “How useful is it really?”

Selmers finally went about actually lighting the thing, then handed it down to Mae. Oh wow, that tiny little flame was actually kinda nice in this cold. “Seems pretty useful right now”

“Can’t argue with that” Mae nodded, smiling lightly.

“How you doing, Mae?” Selmers asked, huddling herself up in her usual sweatshirt.

Mae shrugged. “Eh season”

“Oh yeah, I know what you mean” Selmers nodded along, and the two sat for a while enjoying the view.

Mae was too jittery to do this all day, but it was kind of nice how Selmers could. There was some kind of weird peace to just watching the world go by.

That and Selmers was just smarter than her, so she could probably keep entertained easier.

“Hey, you owe me a poem” Mae said, scooching herself up a step to sit side by side with Selmers.

Selmers smiled and pulled her notepad into view. “Glad you asked”

“Longest Night, Longest Night, sky so dark, stars so bright”

“That’s-”

“Days so cold, like thoughts so old, til darkest nights give way to lights. Greens and reds and blues abound as snow, white scattered on the ground. A chance to breathe from jobs and work where we sit back and enjoy our quirks. Days go by and weeks rush on, before we know it a year has gone. Time is wasted on things so basic, to just keep moving forward and follow orders. So Longest Night, Longest Night, with sky so dark, has spirits so bright. One night a year we take this break to rest our minds and soothe our aches”

Mae sat in silence, watching Selmers in case she started up again. When she set down her notepad on the step. Mae immediately began clapping. “You. Are. The friggin. Best”

Selmers blushed and wrapped an arm around Mae, pulling her in. “Thanks for getting me back in my groove” she said with a grin.

“Any time, just as long as you keep being awesome” Mae wheezed out from the squeeze of the half-hug. Yeah, Selmers was definitely stronger than her.

Selmers finally released and gave Mae a quick pat on the back, standing up to head back inside. “Alright, I’ve gotta get ready for work”

Mae’s smile fell. “You’re working? It’s Longest Night Eve!”

“Oh believe me, I know” Selmers sighed out. “But that’s how retail is. I’ll be off tomorrow if you want to come say hi”

“Definitely. See you around Selmers. Sell… uh. Sing...mers…”

Selmers shook her head. “No nicknames, Mae” she said, retreating into the house.

“Right. Sorry” Mae gave her a quick wave.

Then she was down the steps, onto the sidewalk, and back running up the hillside.

Dang, it was hard to be broody and depressed when she knew people like that. After this morning Mae had been expecting to brood all the way through the day, but then with Mom and Selmers… how does Bea always stay in as bad a mood as she’s in? She must need better friends.

No, that can’t be it, she has the _best possible_ friends right now. Maybe it's a genetic thing and some people were just born naturally broody.

Speaking of Bea…

Mae ducked her head low while passing by the front of the Ol’ Pickaxe. No doubt Bea would already be working, and she wasn’t sure wanted to… actually hold on.

Mae backed up and pressed her face up to the glass. For the second day in a row, Bea wasn’t inside. This time however there was _someone_ behind the counter, just… no one Mae recognized. Wonder where Danny got off to?

Mae pushed the door open and stepped inside, checking her corners like she was breaking and entering. Yep, no Bea. She hurried up to the front desk where the new clerk, an older looking man was watching her. Then she hit the bell on the front counter anyway, looking him dead in the eyes.

He sighed heavily, and asked “What can I do for you?”

“Where’s Bea?” Mae asked. She was already looking behind the counter into the back, expecting her girlfriend to pop out at any moment and begin the berating.

Instead the old timer shrugged. “I don’t know”

“Aaaaand who are you?”

He shrugged again. “Creek. Did you need something?”

Mae’s eyes widened. Had she never met this guy face to face? “Creek? As in _Creek_ Creek?”

“I’m the only Creek I know” He said. “Listen I don’t mean to be rude but-”

“I’m gonna go” Mae said. She backed from the counter and hurried out the door without another word. Back out into the snow.

Huh. Creek. Creek Creek Creek.

One could say Mae was good with names. She remembered everyone’s. Well, almost everyone’s. It was a small town okay? And the only Creek she’d heard of was the very same she’d heard Bea complaining about yesterday.

The same guy Bea had mentioned months before. The guy who tried to molest her. God that felt… slimy. And he was like… just a dude. Just a normal, old looking dude who tried to molest her effing girlfriend. God. This was confusing. Part of it was just jarring, but the other part was Mae having decided long ago that she’d get back at this guy if she ever saw him. And she was still... So like…

What do we do?

Well, right in front of the store, and very thankfully just a space over so as to be not visible from the window was a car. Dirty dull blue, like half the cars in this town. Mae had never seen this one before. She wasn’t even an expert on cars and she was certain she’d never seen this one before. She’d also never seen Creek before so… putting two and two together…

Mae flicked her finger and a claw was extended. Okay, yeah, this would work.

One quick look down each length of the sidewalk and she was clear. It was still early, that and it was pretty effing cold out, so people just didn’t really want to be out and about it seemed.

Let’s see, how do we want to do this? Naturally the first thought is to write ‘Mae was here,’ but that’s just… that’s just childish. You’re better than that, Mae Borowski.

One drawing of a dick and balls carved into the door later, Mae was back to musing for ideas. Probably for the best, she was pretty certain no one else in town had her name. She’d definitely get arrested.

Hm…

So naturally next was the phrase ‘Steve was here’ written on the hood. Mae regretted not spelling it ‘heer’ just to make it seem authentic, but she was pretty sure her nails wouldn’t survive the attempt to scribble it out and change.

Oh yeah, and on the back door, well she might as well just go crazy with it and-

“What the hell are you doing?”

Mae looked up from her work, finding Andy Cullen standing about a meter away watching her with an entire hand’s worth of claws still pressed into the metal.

“Is this your car?” Mae asked.

Andy stared a moment more. “Uh… no”

“Good” She said, and dragged her hand down leaving a trail of scratches down the side.

Andy shook his head, with a combination of disgust and… just general dislike. “What is wrong with you?”

“What are you gonna call the police on me?” Mae asked, dragging her claw horizontally now. Might as well make tic tac toe board while she was at it.

She probably shouldn’t have said that, because for just a second Andy looked like he was about to get his phone out before remembering there was no reception in this god forsaken town. If he really wanted to, he’d have to work for it.

So instead he asked “Depends. I don’t really want to bother. Whose car is this?”

“Some guy named Creek” Mae said, and turned her attention back to her work.

“You just know everyone’s names, don’t you?” Andy asked.

Guess she did, if even Andy noticed. “I guess”

Andy crossed behind her, head tilted as he watched what she was doing. He could still take a picture to get her arrested _later_ after all. “So… why are you doing this exactly?”

“Why do you care?” Mae asked. She really did not need this guy here right now. There was something insulting about the way he told her off and nearly made her suffocate, and then all of a sudden wanted to chit chat.

Andy shrugged. “I don’t. I’m guessing you’re just being pissy”

“I _am_ being pissy!” Mae yelled, digging her hand in. “And I’m like… almost certain this car belongs to a guy who tried to molest my girlfriend” she said, lowering her voice. Don’t want to actually alert Creek himself and bring him out here. “I’ve had a bad week, I _need_ to break something” she finished.

“Yeah I’m familiar with how you work” Andy scoffed.

“I said I’m sorry. What more do you want from me?” Mae asked, finally pulling her hand free and turning to face him. “I’m not good at this stuff. What else do I have to do?”

Andy watched her and thought it over, leaning on his good leg. Yet ultimately he said nothing, instead shaking his head. Maybe he was at a loss for answers himself.

Andy pulled his cigarette pack from his pocket, and Mae instinctively flinched away. Andy stared, dumbfounded for a moment, then shook his head and went off on his way limping down the sidewalk.

Great.

Mae gave one last extra long scratch along the side view mirror. It didn’t even feel good anymore. “Yeah, okay. I give up”

* * *

Bea laid on her back. No laptop for right now, wasn’t in the mood for her usual surfing. Mom’s old records, currently playing out the top of an unpacked box, always helped.

Probably helped.

Bea only really played them at times like this. It was comforting, but she didn’t want them to become like… internally associated with bad times. Her mom deserved better.

Bed could be comfier but then there were a lot of things in this room that _could_ be better.

She left the lights off and the curtains drawn. Maybe it was too blatantly broody, but it was nice in its own way. For once she felt actually free to just… sleep.

So Bea relaxed, she listened to her music, and she drifted off.

And then what felt like a minute later, she was awoken by a sharp tapping noise. With a hefty sigh she stood from her bed and checked the clock.

An hour had passed. Hm.

Probably explained why she was a bit dizzy standing up that quickly, not that she wasn’t used to it from work anyway.

She flicked the lights on and opened her door, only to find that the hallway out to the rest of the apartment was empty. Oh yeah, right, Dad wasn’t here today.

The tapping sound came again, and now awake she could much more clearly that it was coming from the window. Well that was just perfect, either that effing squirrel was back or someone was finally trying to break in on the one day she wasn’t at work.

Bea checked her pockets, remembered she was still in her pajamas, then rifled through the abandoned set of clothes at the foot of her bed. After obtaining her little canister of mace, she finally took a deep breath and readied herself at the window.

She yanked the curtains to the side, and saw… nothing. Just an empty windowsill looking out, and the head of the god damn statue peeking over.

And the Mae suddenly pulled her head up into view from under the railing.

Bea very nearly jumped out of her skin. She dropped the mace and turned away, pacing while holding a hand over her eyes. “God. Dammit” This is her life, dealing with… that. Why can’t Mae just go horrify other people?

She sighed and turned back to the window, very seriously considering shutting the curtains again. Ultimately though she looked Mae in the eyes and asked “What?”

Mae said… something. Muffled and strained, just about completely inaudible through the window.

Bea undid the lock and pulled it up, letting in a gust of cold air. She backed away from the window shivering. Her pajamas were definitely not suited for this weather. “What?”

“I said open the window” Mae clarified. Great, good to know.

Bea sighed heavily, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Mae, could you go do anything else?”

Mae dragged herself halfway inside, torso first. ”I just wanted to stop by and like…”

“Mae…”

She then promptly slid inside from the windowsill, straight onto the floor, which she immediately scrambled up from. “I wanted to say sorry” She mumbled out.

Bea shook her head. “I know”

Mae had begun pacing awkwardly, not really sure what to do with her hands. “I was really trying to help, and like things just got out of hand so fast, and…” She said while looking over the record player that had long since stopped playing. She moved the arm back into place, and music began flowing again. Somber.

“Mae. Please” Bea wandered back over to bed, taking a seat on the edge of her mattress. She was tired. Just tired. “Just… shut up, okay?”

Mae waited a moment, then silently came over and took a seat beside Bea. “Okay”

Bea shut her eyes and leaned on Mae’s shoulder, quietly nodding her head in time with the music. And then… she spoke slowly, cleary. Thinking carefully, afraid in her own way. “Look, I know you’re sorry, I know you meant well, I know all that crap, just… to be honest, I’m pissed at you. I’m very close to saying something I’m going to regret. So please, just…”

Mae sat and waited and stared at the record player. “Yeah. Okay” She couldn’t understand how anyone could listen to this as much as Bea. It made her feel even worse.

They sat like this a few minutes more. Not exactly enjoying each other, but at least enjoying the moment. The music, the calm, the peace of both of them having silently agreed that now wasn’t a good time. It was them at their most comfortable, where they could sit around and be broken together.

Until Bea suddenly stood up from the bedside. “I’m going back to bed” She said, heading over to the wall and flicking the lights back off, so the only light in the room was once again the gray skies from outside pouring in through the window.

“Could I like… hang here for a while?” Mae asked, as Bea was laying herself back down. Bea eyed her accusingly. “Please?”

Bea shook her head. “Yeah. Okay. Just… quietly” She conceded, pulling up a blanket and turning to face the wall.

As quiet as the music would allow, anyway. Mae kicked off her boots, stretched out, then pulled herself into the bed as well. A minute of hesitation later and she hugged Bea from behind, shutting her eyes as she did. Blind to Bea’s minor protest of shaking her head, though thankfully that’s all she did. Whatever.

The next time Bea’s eyes opened, the music had once again stopped. No knocking on her door, and none on her window for that matter. Just the quiet dark of her room, now with the early sunset of Longest Night Eve only adding to just how dimly lit it was.

She took a deep breath and sat up. 5:21 PM. God, she’d slept practically the entire day away. She stretched out, pulled up her laptop, and was immediately blinded upon opening it up.

A minute later of rubbing her eyes and adjusting to the light, Bea checked over her messages. None from Mae, she wasn’t even online. Jackie had sent her usual five or six, two from Angus. Alright, let’s actually get out of bed before we get into this.

Bea shut her laptop, stood, stretched again, then froze at the sight of an ever familiar feline still in her room. Just… standing at her window looking out with her face pressed up against the glass. She actually hadn’t noticed Mae at all. When was the last time she was completely silent?

“You’re still here” Bea said.

Mae nodded, her fur sliding on the glass. “Yeah. I didn’t have anything to do today”

Cool. Good to know she was the default.

Well, Mae didn’t exactly seem very lively, so it was a good opportunity to get ready. One quick change of clothes, a crack of her back, then she left for the bathroom where there were the usual duties to attend to.

Eyeliner to finish it off, and finally returning to her room where she flipped the lights on.

Mae flinched from the window, looking around wildly before stopping on Bea. “Oh. I thought it was your dad”

“Wanna get dinner somewhere?” Bea asked.

Mae shrugged. “Maybe later” she said. Then stood awkwardly, wanting to talk but not really knowing where to start. “So... saw Andy today”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah”

Good attempt.

“Are you doing anything tonight?” Mae asked.

Well considering Bea had just offered to grab food with her… “No, I’m free”

Mae looked to the window again, kicked her leg awkwardly, and asked “Can you drive me to the high school?”

There were a half dozen questions Bea probably should have asked here, but to be honest she was used to it by now. She’d already been set to go out anyway, so… “... sure”

* * *

All it took was one excessive bit of yanking for the frozen, rusty chain on the field shed to be broken off. Bea kept watch outside, though to be honest neither of them really expected anyone to be out here.

Mae scrounged around inside for a little while, and finally emerged from the shed with a pair of aluminum baseball bats. “Ready”

Bea nodded, and followed along. The little shed sat outside, just on the corner of the main high school building with both a soccer field on one side and the baseball field on the other. Space was a bit tight, but it worked.

Mae lead the two of them over to the baseball field, offering Bea a bat only for her to shake her head and turn it down. She tossed it aside, settling with only needing the one for right now.

After a minute of clearing some snow with her boots to reveal the right spot, Mae took up her position at the home plate, while Bea took her own usual position sitting on the bottom seat of the bleachers nearby. “Thanks for bringing me out here” Mae said.

She took up her bat, looked out over the field at a range of nonexistent players, and wound up preparing to hit a nonexistent ball.

Bea watched, though not too closely. This wasn’t exactly her element either. Instead she flicked open her lighter and worked on igniting a cigarette.

Mae took a deep breath, squinted her eyes, waited for the throw, and swung with all her might. It was reckless, and she had practically no aim. It was a wonder she’d ever been on the team. Probably because when she _did_ hit, even if just by luck…

“He was on the other team. Right over there” Mae pointed to the mound in the center of the field, barely visible as just a lump under the blanket of snow. “I wasn’t really… I was just swinging. When it’s all just things, hitting the ball was really easy”

Bea said nothing, just quietly nodding along with her hands stuffed in her pockets. Mae moved with some surprising ease considering she was also in one of Bea’s coats. Kind of required at this point.

“I saw it coming and I just swung” Mae said. She swung her bat at nothing again, eyes wide. Fully back in the moment. “Then people were cheering. It was just noise. I don’t remember where the ball went”

“And then the next thing I knew, this… blob. Just like this big blob of shapes, running at me. I think I heard my name. I guess I was supposed to run, but… I wasn’t really thinking. I was just scared. Someone was coming right at me, and…” Mae swung again. Hard.

She’d started running. Stumbling, really, out away from the home plate. Away from whoever was running at her from the left. Nothing but noise all around. Out in the middle of the field was that blob of shapes.

Standing in her way. Keeping her from running off.

The snow was coated in red. Stained all over. God it was a lot. How could one person even have that much blood?

Her eyes were wide, her head hurt, people were yelling, so much yelling… “I just remember I was on top of him, and people were grabbing me and like… just pulling. I guess they thought I was going to kill him”

Mae swung again. And she was back in that snow covered field. There was no red, there was no yelling, there was just… calm. The snow had stopped falling. Just the two of them out where they weren’t supposed to be.

Bea nodded quietly. She had never really wanted to ask for details. Well, maybe in kind of a morbid way. The same way one _sort of_ wanted to see a car crash, even if they’d hate for it to happen.

“Why weren’t you at work today?” Mae asked. She’d let her bat fall for the moment, just tracing it through the snow. “I didn’t know you could sleep so long. Just figured you were like a worker robot”

“And you like me anyway” Bea mused smirking.

Mae shrugged. “Robots are pretty cool”

Bea focused on her cigarette for a few moments more. One deep breath, and she said “I got fired last night, Mae”

Mae hesitated on the next swing of her bat, looking over at Bea wide-eyed. “I got you fired?”

“No, you didn…” That wasn’t true. She wasn’t going to lie. “Okay, yeah you did. Sort of”

“I didn’t mean to” Mae mumbled. Bea wasn’t yelling, and part of that just made it worse. She picked up her bat and got back into position for he next nonexistent ball.

“I know”

Mae took a deep breath, waited for the pitch, and swung with every ounce of strength she had. Her boots slid straight from under her, and the next thing she knew she was laying in the snow facing the sky again. Yeah, that was about how tonight was going.

She took a deep, audible inhale, then yelled as loudly as she could at the sky. She wasn’t really cursing anything in particular, just… making noise helped.

And though taken aback, Bea wasn’t as surprised as she expected herself to be. “Better?” She asked once Mae’s yell was done.

“Little bit” Mae shrugged from where she laid. Then she raised both hands to start rubbing her face in frustration. “Why do I ruin everything I try to fix?” She said, muffled.

It was… hard to be mad at her. Harder to not pity her. Bea sighed and stepped down from the bleachers. Alright, what are we doing here?

She scanned the area. There was the extra discarded bat, the feline herself, snow, and… not much else. Hm.

And as Mae was laying there mentally berating herself, she put her arms down for just a moment and was immediately nailed in the face by a snowball. She sat up within a second looking panicked again with snow now stuck in the fur on her face.

Bea was standing just a short ways off, gathering up another snowball. “What are you doing?” Mae asked.

Bea shrugged, patting down the ball to make it nice and firm. “I’m being fun. You always get on my case for not being fun, so…”

Mae sighed. “That’s not gonna work. I’m in too bad a moo-” and then she reeled back, nailed in the face by a second snowball. They weren’t like the ones she used to make where she put a rock in them, but Bea knew how to throw.

“That’s fine. It’s partly for me too” Bea said, smirking. She went about gathering up more snow.

Mae lifted herself up and wiped her face off. “You have a _really_ good arm”

“You don’t last at my job this long being weak”

True. For a moment Mae considered returning fire, but then a better idea came to mind. It had stopped snowing after all.

She picked up her bat and got into position, her game face now securely on. “Throw another one”

Bea threw, Mae swung, and as the snowball and bat collided there was and explosion of white into the air, while the gentle winds picked up the little specks and scattered them about. Do-it-yourself snowfall. Yeah. She could stand to do this for a while.

Mae got back into position for the next. “So what do you wanna talk about?”

Bea shrugged, patting down the next ball. She thought it over a moment, and asked. “How’d you end up being the bassist?”

“What, you don’t like my bassing skills?” Mae accused, swinging as the next ball was loosed and creating another burst of snowfall for the two of them.

“Not that. Just figured you were more of an attention whore than Gregg” Bea explained. She couldn’t imagine this having been a conscious choice.

“Haha yeah. We took an online test” Mae said.

Bea hesitated as she was working up the next ball. “Seriously?”

“Shut up, it worked. Now we’re all right where we belong. I don’t have to take sass from the ‘keyboard player’”

“That’s a real thing, and that’s not what it means” Bea said. She loosed the next ball, and there was another burst of white through the air. “So this test said for you to be the bassist?”

Mae shrugged, wiping herself off. Her fur was getting absolutely covered in snow from this. “It was more like a personality test? Like, the lead guitarist is supposed to be hot and spunky and have all the women draped over their legs-”

“I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear that”

“- and we’re both hot and spunky, so we had to check. And it turns out Gregg’s hotter and spunkier” She explained.

“What about Angus?” Bea asked.

“Eh” Mae shrugged, getting back into position. “Well this was before they were going out. Just me and Gregg and Casey back then. Then Angus started hanging out with Gregg, so he started hanging out with us, and I guess the whole women draped around his legs idea fell apart”

Bea loosed another snowball. “I thought you got your bass at sixteen?”

“My dad got me _my_ bass at sixteen. I was already using the one at the Party Barn” Mae explained, taking another swing. This one missed wildly, and the snowball went flying harmlessly over her shoulder.

“So did Gregg not know back then he was… uh…”

Mae shrugged. “Nah, he did. It’s just easier to imagine it with a bunch of babes than with a bunch of Anguses. Like, you could drape maybe three Anguses around Gregg tops”

Bea snickered under her breath. “So what’d that test say about you?”

“Well…” Mae hesitated. It was actually kind of embarrassing in a way. “It said I don’t like people. And the best situation for me was one where everyone already liked me but left me alone… except when they’re bringing me food”

Oh wow, the most relatable thing Mae had said all night. Bea rolled her eyes and tossed another snowball. “I could see you being like that”

Mae put her hands on her hips, not even trying to hit this next ball. “Excuse you Beatrice, I go _out_ to mooch for my food”

Bea shrugged and began preparing the next snowball. “Right. Sorry, how rude of me”

She threw, and Mae swung. One last explosion of white into the air, one last mystical little treat for the night.

“Anyway, yeah. Bassist is a good spot for me ‘cause people don’t really notice them, and I figured I could just be awesome enough to be noticed anyway” Mae said.

Bea nodded. “Alright, my fingers are freezing, I’m done with this” she said.

Mae followed her along back over to the bleachers, where Bea found herself a seat on the second row up. Mae climbed up and laid down beside her, back to staring up at the sky.

“So uh… fired” she said. They had to get to that at _some_ point.

Bea has returned to focusing on her cigarette. “Yeah”

With a deep breath, Mae asked “What happened?”

Bea shrugged. Where to even start. “My dad means well” she said, which meant just about nothing. _Everyone_ meant well. Bea leaned back on the seat behind hers. “Well, he uh… he told me what you said. About… everything, really. How I felt, and what he’d been doing, or not doing I guess, and… it was a whole thing”

“And he fired you for that?” Mae asked, lifting her head only slightly.

“No. He fired me because I agreed with you” Bea said. The two went quiet. Bea enjoyed her cigarette, Mae enjoyed the view of the stars. “So we talked about what you said, and things got a little heated, and… I shouldn’t have. I wish I hadn’t. But I agreed with you. You were right. He said if that’s how I felt about the job, if it was that big of a problem then I should just…” Bea sighed. “He didn’t mean it. It was the whole ‘Well if that’s how you really feel’ thing”

“Wasn’t it though? A problem I mean?” Mae asked.

Bea gave no answer, which at the same time gave the entire answer.

“How though? I thought… like, you guys _needed_ you to be working” Mae asked again.

Bea shook her head. “No, _I_ needed to be working so I could get a paycheck. Dad owns the store, the money goes to him either way”

“So the whole family business thing…?”

Bea shrugged and took a deep drag from her cigarette, breathing a cloud of smoke into the air. “As long as one of us is working there, it doesn’t really matter”

Mae sat up straight, looking over with wonder like a stupid, stupid, adorable five year old. “Your dad’s working at the Pickaxe again?”

Bea nodded. “You got what you wanted”

Mae gawked. It’s amazing just how many conflicting emotions this conversation could put in her head. She’d… sort of done it. Bea’s dad was working again, and Bea herself was free. She didn’t want to be, and she was mad about it, but she was free.

“It… like…” Mae didn’t even really know how to talk right now. Just… huh. “I feel like shit but it sounds like it’s actually better. Like, this is what I wanted. This is what _you_ wanted”

Bea shrugged, taking her cigarette out to breathe clearly for a bit. “To be honest, maybe it is. I don’t really know yet. Hard to feel good about getting fired”

“Maybe it’s not so bad” Mae said, thinking on it a moment. Bea didn’t seem to have any idea either way. “So… how was your first day of freedom?” Mae asked.

“I…” Bea started. She hesitated. She shut her eyes, and took another deep drag from her cigarette. An ever so coy smile could just barely be made out on her lips. “I got to sleep in this morning. And… I hadn’t realized how long it’s been since I’ve done that”

Mae smirked. “Sounds nice”

Bea quietly nodded, soaking in the thought. It… felt good. She flicked her cigarette awa, letting the cold air around them cool her throat. “You’d know”

Mae laid back down. Well, she scooched over first, so that she was laying her head in Bea’s lap. Bea rolled her eyes, but obediently began scratching Mae’s head as though she were petting a cat.

Of course there were no actual similarities between Mae and a cat, one was a person and one was an animal. Two very different things. But it just seemed right anyway.

Mae certainly closed her eyes and enjoyed it like a cat. There was that quiet vibrating sound from her again, rumbling against Bea’s legs. It was… well. Cute.

Bea took a deep breath. Well… “Mae… I don’t know if I’m gay”

Mae’s eyes opened again. “... oh”

“Yeah. Things have been… weird” Bea explained. She hadn’t stopped her little scratches, or pushed Mae away, but this sure felt like a good way to kill the mood too.

“Why’d you say yes if-?”

“You’re a _very_ convincing drunk” Bea smirked.

“Huh” Well… that was it. They weren’t compatible. “So like… is this it then?” Mae asked.

Bea shrugged. “I guess so” Yeah, this was it. “I had a _lot_ of fun, Mae. More fun with you than in the past couple years of my life”

So she kept her scratching, and Mae shut her eyes again. And they were both… okay with this. That’s just how they were. It’s how they’d agreed to be.

And somehow, Mae still seemed… well. Disappointed. Who wouldn’t be?

Maybe this meant Bea was a rotten person. She really _had_ been leading her on then, right?

Bea drummed her fingers on Mae’s head, and said “Mae, ask me out again”

“What?”

“Don’t ruin the moment, just do it”

Mae shook her head, looking up at Bea quizzically. “Uh… Bea, do you wanna go out with me?”

Bea stared off over the field. Not drunk anymore. No more convincing. And she still wanted to do it, so…

Her arms wrapped around Mae’s torso, and she hugged her girlfriend close. Close and tight and warm and safe. Her little bundle of broken thoughts. Mae didn’t exactly get much say in the matter, so for now, she’d just enjoy this.

Soon enough, Bea at least released her so Mae might lay back down…

And then, Bea slapped her. Hard. Like, ow. Seriously. _Ow_. Mae’s vision actually turned red for just a split second. It made Jackie’s hit feel like a wet noodle in comparison.

“Ooooow” Mae half said, half wheezed. Had she been standing upright she’d now be hunched over. Instead she’d been laying though, and so she’d just rolled down into the leg area in front of where she’d been laying.

Bea stood up and took Mae by the wrist, helping her back up to her feet. “I just need you to understand that if you _ever_ screw with my dad again, I’m going to beat the absolute shit out of you. Got it?”

Mae was only half-aware, but… yeah. She was used enough to threats that the message got through. “... yeah”

“Good” Bea nodded. She stepped down from the bleachers, and started walking off back to the car. “Come on, let's get out of here”

Mae watched her go, completely struck by… well, a lot to be fair. Then a thought reached her mind, and she suddenly felt robbed. She went off running after Bea. “... not even a kiss?! That was a perfect kiss moment!”

“I _just_ said I’m confused about it. Don’t push it”

“You suck at being gay! I got like super gay in a week without even trying. Two weeks tops”

“Yeah, yeah, put it in your journal”

“I will! And you’ll just be a footnote about how much you suck at being gay!”

“Oh no. The horror”

* * *

“Give me my shirt back”

Mae suddenly wrapped her arms around herself, hugging the shirt to her body. “I will literally fight you for this”

They were parked out front of Mae’s house again, and besides Mae being significantly less drunk than last time, things were pretty similar to the last snowy night they’d spent together.

“Mae, don’t-” Bea started to say, only for Mae to let herself out and sprint straight to her front door. She let herself in, then appeared at the window a moment later, waving goodbye.

Bea gave a heavy sigh, shook her head, and drove off. Sweeeet, the shirt remains safe.

Mae marched around the foyer, just flaunting her rightfully won shirt. “I am the best” is what she was thinking but not quite vain enough to say in the sing-songy voice she had imagined.

Truly, a college level student.

Mae hurried into the living room, scooted right past her dad, and hopped up on the couch beside him. “Sup poppers”

“Someone’s having a good night” her dad smiled. “Nice shirt”

Mae beamed at the compliment. “I stole it from a witch”

“Tip for dating, kitten…” Stan started.

“Uuuugh, mom told you”

“... Not a good idea to call your significant other a witch”

Mae shrugged. “Bea’s pretty witch-like”

Stan thought it over a moment. “Hmm. She make any decent brews today? Love potion?”

“Ugh” Mae groaned. Not _this_ conversation. “She has the day off. Longest Night Break”

Stan snickered. “Right you are. Speaking of which, you should head up to bed. Your mother would rather you actually be awake for Longest Night this year”

Mae hopped down from the couch, hands on her hips in full sass mode. “I sleep through Longest Night _one_ _year_ , and you guys never let me forget it. Shackle me up why don’t ya”

“That’s us. Your horrid jailers” Stan chuckled under his breath.

“Goodnight!” Me yelled grinning all the while, throwing her hands up as she did. And up the stairs she ran.

This time, Mae didn’t even bother kicking off her boots before diving into bed and opening up her laptop. There was about a dozen messages waiting for her that she’d just been ignoring over the past day or two, but today she was looking straight for Bea’s messages.

 **M** : sooo what are you doing?”

 **B** : History stuff.

 **M** : what history stuff

 **B** : Possum Springs history stuff. Ever heard of the Deep Hollow Hollerers?”

 **M** : yeah

 **B** : What seriously?

 **M** : why is that surprisng?

 **B** : You’re like…

 **B** : Anyway I was just reading around and kept seeing the name pop up. They died a long while back so I’ve just been listening to some covers.

 **M** : link me gurl

 **B** : https://www.vidtube.com/watch?v=u17kM8oSz3k

 **M** : oh i heard this one before

 **B** : It’s weird that you know this stuff.

 **M** : i heard it in a city in a forest on a train once

 **B** : Okay.

 **M** : it’s complcated

 **B** : Goodnight, Mae.

Mae beamed. She watched the little green light go white, and kicked her legs about, finally discarding her boots.

Yeah. Tonight was a good night.

Okay, on to the others…

* * *

Bea shut her laptop and set it aside in her passenger seat. She leaned forward on the wheel, sighing. Just do it, this’ll be easy. Before Dad stops letting her use the car too. Gotta do it tonight.

Bea exited the car, locked it behind her, and hurried down the roadside with only a single iron streetlight illuminating the crappy little neighborhood.

She marched up to the front porch of the house that looked a smidgen better than the rest, considered turning and leaving, and finally knocked on the door. This was stupid. This was so stupid.

Someone had to do it though. She mused over that thought. Apparently… all social norms and thoughts of being polite aside, _someone_ had to step forward to make a difference.

The front door opened inwards. The mess of a 20 year old that was Andrew Cullen appeared in the doorway, silhouetted from the light inside. “Can I help you?” He asked.

Bea nodded. She didn’t actually know what she was supposed to say here, but… “I’m… I’m Bea. Beatrice Santello”

Andy looked at her with a raised eyebrow. At least, it looked raised. Hard to tell with his face.

“I was in your highschool year” Bea clarified.

“Oh. You’re here for… what, questions? Gossip?” Andy asked, instantly sounding less impressed.

Bea shook her head. “I’m Mae Borowski’s bes… I’m her girlfriend”

“Oh” Andy said. He leaned out the door to look around the porch. No Mae in sight. With a deep breath, he stepped outside and shut the door beside him, taking a cigarette from his pocket.

Bea did the same, flicking out her lighter and offering the flame.

Andy took the offer, and wandered over to the railing of his porch where he leaned and thought and waited. Bea didn’t make herself so comfortable, though she was used to smoking enough to join him in that act.

“Heard you don’t like her” Bea mumbled.

“Is that surprising?” Andy countered.

“... I guess not” she shrugged along. Couldn’t argue that.

Andy watched, and waited, and sighed. “You’re just like her. You want me to… what, call her? Tell her it’s cool, let bygone be bygones?”

“Yeah, actually. It’s been six years” Bea said with a smirk. This effing guy. Talking like he knew everything.

Andy shook his head. “It’s like you’re both still fourteen” he said, and headed for the door.

“No, _you’re_ just like _me_ ” Bea slammed her hand on the door in front of him, walking closer as he backed off. “So _I_ am going to talk, and _you_ are going to listen”

Andy raised his hands ever so slightly. He wasn’t going to be afraid of… Well, he didn’t really have a choice here. Bea was… she was scary, in her own way. In the way that made Mae avoid her. Because she talked firmly, because her voice had that ever so slight edge to it, because she carried that air of a 20 year old who’d worked too long and knew better than you.

“I was pissed at her too. Everyone gets pissed at Mae, she’s an idiot. She doesn’t think, she just talks” Bea said.

“Then why should I care how she feels?” Andy asked.

“Because she wasn’t talking. Or thinking. Or even seeing you when she hurt you. She was in the middle of a mental breakdown. You were just…” Bea shook her head. It was horrible to think. Worse for Andy to hear. “You were in the wrong place at the wrong time”

“Yeah?” Andy asked, a slight bit of condescending laughter on the edge of his voice. “What about everyone else that deals with their mental issues without putting someone else in the hospital?”

Bea was holding a hand over her eyes. God, just doing this… this was stupid. “Look, if… if you think that’s all there is to it, then fine. I wasted my time. But I brought her, I know she came out here to try and patch things up. I know she tries her ass off. She’s an idiot, but… Mae Borowski is a genuinely good person. She’s not the one trying to make someone else feel bad just for some sick sense of… whatever the hell you’re doing”

Andy froze. His mouth was open, he was searching for the words, and yet… “... I…”

“She didn’t touch your leg” Bea spat. “Everyone knows that. Everyone but her, because she can barely remember what happened. You’re taking advantage of that. You’re taking advantage of someone else’s mental illness”

“I didn’t know…”

But Bea just kept going. “She didn’t ruin your life, you ruined it yourself and she’s just an easy effing target for you to take it out on” she said.

Andy waited for her to keep going. Only after a full minute of silence did he look like he was even thinking of what to say, and then… “Yeah. She is” He said. Like it was the easiest thing in the world. Like I didn’t even matter. “I don’t forgive her. I don’t think I ever will, I… I sincerely hate her. But I’m not hunting her down reminding her of it, I’m just sitting here, in my own home, minding my own business, hating her. And you want to come here and tell me what an ass I’m being, huh? Maybe she deserves to hurt a little, too. Don’t you think so?”

“Then don’t forgive her, but don’t be a dick” Bea sighed, exasperated. “She already hurts. She’s going to be hurting for the rest of her life” Maybe. It was hard for even Bea to see it, but this week was nothing if not a little journey that tiny bit deeper into Mae, down to where she hated herself. Bea took her cigarette out to take a deep, cold breath. “By the way. Careful with these, she’s allergic”

Andy nodded. That made sense. Didn’t know it exactly, but knew it must have been something like that. “Why do you do it?”

Bea shrugged. “I have the willpower of a fly and withdrawal hurts like a bitch. Something something insightful about making compromises, I guess” She said. Then she turned, and started making her way down the porch steps and back to her car, giving only a half hearted wave of goodbye. “Happy Longest Night”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I normally hate cliches. One or two don't always hurt though.
> 
> At the end of The Perfect Storm, I had the idea of Mae getting a job at the Ol' Pickaxe. That's the obvious choice, right? But that's so... been done. I'll fully admit to just wanting to be a little bit different, but more accurately I think it's just a happy thought to believe Mae is more likely to get a job than she is to ruin someone else's. She's a good kid. She's a shithead too. I decided at the very least that by the end of this story, Mae and Bea would be on the same level in regards to employment.


	5. 12/21, Weird Week

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. Last chapter. Follows the theme I've set so very often of two times now that the fifth chapter has been probably the least important, story wise, but was just fun to write. Very dialogue heavy.

**M** : hey so

**M** : i didnt want to say it to everyoneone at a time

**M** : so happy longest night to everyone here

She had barely bothered getting dressed for the new day, but at long as she was going to be awake before noon it was worth saying hi. At present there was just about everyone online, probably thanks to the holiday. Hard to imagine Bea not working a holiday but here we are.

**G** : happy longest night!

**L** : Happy Longest Night.

**B** : Ditto.

**G** : angus says it too

A few moments later, Angus’s little light changed from white to green… and Gregg’s stayed green too.

**M** : hey gregg n angus?

**M** : do u guys like share your computer or what?

**A** : Is that weird?

**M** : sounds cramped

**G** : u shoud try it dude

**G** : hes a big squishy teddy ear

**B** : He’s LIKE a teddy bear.

**G** : i kno wat im talking about

**M** : yore being really quiet lori

**L** : I’m just kinda watching.

**L** : Little bit awkward.

**M** : aww lori youre one of the group too

**M** : right???

**A** : I don’t actually know who Lori is, but sure.

**B** : She’s nice.

A quick few knocks sounded from Mae’s door, drawing her attention. Well if someone was actually coming to wake her up then it  _ must _ have been serious.

That or mom was worried she’d sleep the day away, which was totally an unfair assumption.

**M** : crap g2g

**G** : cya dude

**G** : longest night practice later!!

**B** : Do we have to?

And that was all Mae saw of the remainder of that conversation before shutting her laptop and hopping up.

Boots on, sass on, everything on. Okay, let’s go enjoy this Longest Night with the family.

Mae answered her door and found her mother standing awkwardly on the top of steps on the other side. “Morning Mommers”

“Morning sweetie” Candy answered. Then stood, just quietly rocking on her feet.

“Yep” Mae waited, looked her mother up and down, and… waited some more. “So…”

“You have a visitor” Candy finally said, stepping down a few steps to give Mae room.

“Oh, cool. Thanks” Mae said and hurried down. She was plenty faster than her mother and had naturally decided to speed down with her usual recklessness.

It was probably Lori. She’d said her dad was usually around, but really anything could happen. And Thanksgiving had been fun, so… well actually she’d just been on the messenger so maybe not.

Actually, who doesn’t use messenger? Germ… Selmers…

Mae pulled the front door open while her mother hastily made her way back down the hall to the kitchen.

Andy...

Andy Cullen. Just… standing there at her front door. Oh how the tables have turned. Now it was him coming to harass her. And she was still quietly metaphorically shitting herself.

God, that wasn’t fair. He was supposed to be the one nervous. Or maybe she’d scared him when she visited? And he just didn’t show it? Yeah, that made sense. You’ve hurt him, you can be scary too. Be the alpha, Mae. Alpha.

“Hey” He said.

“I still have my bat” Mae replied, puffing up her chest.

She totally did not still have her bat. Dad wouldn’t let her keep any in the house anymore. Didn’t want to risk anything. Besides, who  _ needs _ a bat just lying around?

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing. I’m lying. Sorry” Mae immediately found some interest in the wood of the doorframe. Smooth. So smooth.

Andy shook the thought off. Right, he’d come to a reason. “So uh… about the other day...”

“Which one?” Mae asked

“I said the other day, not yesterday” Andy clarified, ever so slightly irritated.

“Yeah but I saw you on two other days” There had been the brief meeting at the Snack Falcon too.

“Do you  _ have _ to be this thick?” Andy asked, suddenly losing his temper. He seemed to realize this, and quickly took a deep breath, resetting his tone. “You know what I mean”

He took a moment to pull out his usual pack of cigarettes with one hand a lighter with the other.

Then he watched Mae ever so unsubtly take a full step backwards and shook his head. “I’m not going to do it again. Sorry about that. Didn’t know about your whole… yeah”

“You smoke a  _ lot _ more than Bea” Mae commented, still not coming forward.

“Uh huh” Andy just ignored that for the moment and went back to lighting his own.

“Seriously”

“Are you going to let me talk or what?” Andy asked. And Mae immediately went about shutting up. Andy took a deep breath, breathed in from his cigarette, and started. “Well I’m leaving town again after today so I just wanted to… you know. Sorry. For how I acted. You’re uh… you’re a real piece of shit. And I  _ really _ hate you. But I took some stuff out on you that wasn’t really your fault. So… yeah”

Well… then he’d said it. And she’d said her piece the other day, so… “Yeah. It’s fine” Mae answered.

The two shared an ever so awkward moment of just standing around watching each other. Then Andy shrugged, turned, and started making his way back out into the snow to head home.

“Hey wait!” Mae ran outside after him, immediately regretting the act and huddling her arms up around her chest. “So, are we cool?”

“‘Cool?’” Andy asked, turning to look at her again.

“Yeah, ‘cause you apologized and all, and I apologized too, so, like…” she rambled.

Andy stared a moment, took a deep drag from his cigarette… and breathed out a cloud of smoke harmlessly into the air. “Go fuck yourself, Mae” He said, and started walking again.

Yeah. She could take that. Mae waved after him. “See you around Andy! Happy Longest Night!”

“Mhm”

Mae watched him go for a short while longer. Then she’d started shivering again. God. Okay. Back inside. Warmth. Longest Night breakfast. Food.

Back inside and kicking the snow off her boots into the entrance rug, then just kicking them off completely so as to save time. Then into the kitchen where mother dearest was seated in her usual chair and father something was searching the fridge.

“How’d it go honey?” Candy asked, looking ever so slightly nervous.

Mae hopped up onto the counter beside her father, kicking her legs. “Like two peas in a pond”

“In a pod, honey” Candy clarified.

Mae shook her head. “Well that doesn’t make any sense. What are we having?”

Stan peeked his head over the fridge door to spy her. “Well what are you in the mood for, kitten?”

“Everything!” Mae cried, arms raised. “But I can survive with just pancakes”

“Your father’s pancakes?” Candy asked.

Mae nodded, hopping down and putting her hands on her hips in a pose similar to what she thought a superhero might look like. “I will endure them. For the holiday”

Her father immediately scoffed playfully, looking mock offender. “To hear this blasphemy in my own home, ganged up on by my own family”

“Cook, servant! Cook!” Mae commanded. And cook they would.

* * *

Okay that door could go screw a duck. The ice outside definitely did nothing to help make entering the abandoned Party Barn any easier. It definitely numbed Mae’s nose though, which helped a bit since it’d started smelling faintly of rat droppings a few weeks back.

It also helped with the smell of smoke, as was the case with Mae immediately spotting Bea sitting on the edge of their performing stage smoking alone. Mae yanked the wheeled cooler she was dragging along through the front door, and brought it along as she approached.

“Yooo” Bea half-assedly attempted to be excited as a Mae approached and took a seat beside her.

“I thought you didn’t smoke indoors” Mae commented.

Bea shrugged, and… said not much else.

“In fact I thought you said you were trying to quit. Like… two months ago, when I first got back” Mae said, squinting accusingly.

Bea shrugged yet again. “I guess I just say a lot of things”

“Nah. I talk way more than you” Mae added.

“I bet you follow through half as much though”

“No comment”

And so the two fell to silence, not so much enjoying each other’s company as just… existing. This was an okay moment.

God, where were Gregg and Angus? They were probably snogging. That’s what starts happening when you live with your significant other. You can’t get anywhere on holidays because you’re too busy spending the holiday snogging indoors.

Especially because it was Longest Night too. They were probably snogging while eggnogging. Oh god why’d she have to have this thought now? This was the perfect opportunity to start writing a song, yet there was no Gregg in sight to help. Tragic.

Okay seriously, she was gonna go crazy here.

“So uh… Andy visited this morning” Mae started, nudging Bea’s shoulder to once again gain her attention.

“Really? For what?”

Mae shrugged. “I don’t know. I think… well I think we’re okay now. Sort of okay. I don’t know”

“Huh” Bea commented… and that’s about all she said. She looked like she wanted to say more, but instead just thought on it and decided to leave t alone.

Mae looked her over questioningly. “What?”

“Nothing. What’s in the cooler?” Bea asked, gesturing to the bright blue plastic container Mae was lugging around.

Mae rolled it up right in front of where she sat so she could lift up her legs and set them down on it. “Dinner”

“You brought dinner with you? In a cooler?” Bea raised her eyebrow questioningly.

Mae rolled her eyes. “Well I couldn’t bring it in a suitcase, Beatrice”

“Right, of course”

And then they were out of topics again. Well that was a lie, it was more that they’d just skipped over what was left to be talked about. Life was getting too boring for how complicated it was.

Mae stretched herself out, then leaned herself over and laid her head down in Bea’s lap without a word, gaining a sigh of defeat from the taller of the two as she quickly snuffed out her cigarette on the stage.

“So…” Mae started.

“Yep”

“Weird week”

Bea shrugged. “I don’t know. Seems like all my weeks have been weird since you came back”

Mae thought on that just a moment. Guess they’d definitely seem weird to someone like Bea who until just yesterday was basically a slave. “Eh. I thought the one with the rabid dog was pretty normal”

“You sure? ‘Cause I distinctly remember you puking three times in the same hour” Bea asked, smirking. Well, may as well. She gave Mae’s hair a few absent-minded scratches, periodically checking over towards the door.

Mae rolled her eyes, only to close them the moment the scratching started. “Oh my god, you can’t let  _ anything _ go”

And then just as things were getting good and they were probably going to make love and everything if those online comics were to be believed, an ever so loud creaking was heard from the shop’s entrance.

Mae was back to sitting upright within a moment and Bea was back to looking like she could kill a man with her glare just as fast. So says the status quo.

Just in time too, as Gregg followed by Angus wandered in.

“I can’t effing believe this!” Gregg cried.

Mae asked “What?”

“The sign! Didn’t you see the sign out front?!” He yelled, even more depressed, somehow.

“What sign?” Bea sighed, already receiving too much excitement for a quiet holiday.

“Yeah there was a sign on the front door. Apparently they’re going to be tearing this place down in a week or two” Angus explained. “Didn’t you guys see it?”

Bea shrugged. “I kinda autopiloted myself inside”

“Yeah that” Mae added.

Gregg was far too busy shaking his head to acknowledge such answers. “This sucks! We can’t stand for this, we have to save the Party Barn!”

“What for? It’s kinda already dead” Bea asked.

“Hate to say it but yeah. We just have to find a new spot” Angus added.

Mae sat up, tapping her boots together with some excitement. “We can play for my rats!”

“Yeah, no effing way” Bea was all too quick to shoot the idea down. “I am  _ not _ climbing up there for every band practice”

“You guys are all completely failing me right now, I just need you to know that” Gregg conceded, defeated. Then he raised his attention to the object at Mae’s feet. “What’s in the cooler? Spare organs?”

Mae grew an ever so sly grin. “Like,  _ all _ the organs. We can just build a new whoever we want with these”

Gregg nodded along appreciatively. “Sweeeeet. Okay I’m picking a song while we can still be in here…”

“Hold on hold on” Mae interjected, standing and calling some attention to herself. “So like, about the whole… woods thing. With the cult and Casey and all? We haven’t really done anything about it since then, so like, should we do a Casey song? For Longest Night?"

“Do we have a Casey song?” Bea asked. She gave a sigh as she finally had to stand up and approach her usual spot at her computer stand.

“What was his favorite?” Mae asked.

Gregg shrugged. “Iunno. I always picked”

“Does anyone here actually have a favorite song?” Mae asked yet again, to a complete round of no comments. The front door loudly screeched open yet again, and a few moments later the true shortest and oddest of their little group approached. “Germ, what’s your favorite song?” Mae added.

“I don’t know any of your songs” Germ said without missing a beat.

Mae shook her head disappointedly. “Germ, you’re the worst groupie ever”

The comment seemed to jerk Angus’s attention back, and he quickly asked “He’s the worst what now?”

“Ugh, let’s just make up a Casey song then” Mae finally conceded. She hopped off the stage and grabbed her bass from its spot leaning on the stage’s edge.

Bea took a seat beside her laptop on its stand. “No offense but I’m not spending my whole day here while you guys write a song”

“Not like that, we’ll just do it on the fly. Just play whatever. You know? Whatever” Mae explained. She rattled her fingers over her bass making a… noise. Certainly not a coordinated noise, and moreso certainly not a  _ good _ one.

Gregg however already had his mouth gaping in astonishment. “That sounds… amazing”

“That sounds like a terrible idea” Bea countered.

“Ugh!” Mae groaned nice and loudly. “Come on, it’s what Casey would want! Follow your heart and stuff. Play whatever you feel”

Bea shut her laptop and lifted it into her lap. “That’s nice and all but it’s not how it works with a computer”

“What am I gonna sing?” Angus asked.

Mae shook her head. He clearly was not getting this. “Your heart, Angus. Follow it”

They fell quiet, just long enough for the little gang to each individually come to the same conclusion that Bea then said aloud. “... this is going to be the stupidest thing we’ve ever played”

“Can we do a regular song after?” Gregg asked, slinging on his guitar.

Mae shrugged and got into her own position. “Sure, why not? You guys aren’t doing anything today are you?”

Angus shrugged, taking his spot by his mic. “Gregg and I don’t have work”

Then eyes fell on Bea, and Bea froze. When she realized they were expecting an answer, she stood and opened up her laptop again. “It’s a holiday” was all she said on the matter. Oh. Right.

Mae coughed loudly. Wait, no, she was just supposed to clear her throat, that was more of a growling sound. Shit. Okay whatever, she had their attention. “Okay Gregg start the thing! You know. The thing”

* * *

“See dude? Told you you’d get that solo” Gregg applauded.

The quartet begrudgingly followed Mae in the opposite direction of the Clik Clak after she had assured them dinner was completely handled tonight.

Not that any would complain if Mae actually wanted to treat them for once instead of the other way around.

At present though, they had just passed by the church on their way up the hillside, despite the protests of Angus’s lungs. The church was having some kind of holiday celebration… thing. Dunno. Mae hadn’t ever checked it out herself, but it probably couldn’t be very interesting.

She was pretty sure it was illegal to have actual parties inside churches, ‘cause otherwise why wouldn’t you just have the wedding party there too after the whole ceremony?

“What are you talking about? That still sucked” Mae asked, leading them into the outskirts behind the church.

Bea shrugged. “It sucked pretty bad”

Gregg nodded knowingly. Sagely, with the wisdom only he could have. “Yeah, but it was better than last time! Just gotta keep practicing!”

And Bea, who looked about ready to shut down whatever Gregg was going to say, was left at a loss for words. “... Huh. That’s… huh”

“Well put, Bug” Angus wrapped an arm around his boyfriend while they walked, smiling lightly.

“So what are we doing out here?” Bea asked.

And that’s exactly when Mae stopped the four of them. Staring up at the Possum Springs Water Tower that they’d all been hiking suspiciously close to. She extended her arm, proclaiming “Behold!”

And… that was it. The same water tower literally all of them had seen every day for every year of each of their lives. Looked taller up close, but no less samey.

“Yep. That’s the water tower” Bea shrugged.

“Behold” Mae repeated, hissing.

Angus tilted his head. “Why are we at the water tower?”

“We’re having our bonfire on it!” Mae proclaimed, pulling her cooler around in front of her. “And I brought bonfire food!”

“We’re having a bonfire!?” Gregg asked, wide eyed with wonder.

“We’re having a bonfire on the water tower?” Angus clarified, squeezing Gregg’s shoulder and yanking him back to reality.

Bea shook her head, taking a firm step back. “Like hell we are”

“Didn’t someone die climbing this thing?” Angus asked.

“Yeah just one girl I think. Come on, guys! Longest Night bonfire! It’s my first year back, we literally have to do this” Mae gestured towards the water tower again, but instead of another ‘behold’ was a more pleasing “Come on. This is our chance to make some memories”

“Well-” Gregg started, only to receive a look from Angus and Bea. He immediately switched gears. “Can’t we make memories on our couch?”

“What are you going to remember more? Longest Night bonfire on the water tower, or Longest Night movies on the couch?” Mae asked, hands on her hips. She was silently sulking beneath the sass. “And you guys are leaving in a month, right? We’re like never going to get this chance again”

The group fell quiet, each silently considering. Well, more like all very much wanting to find a way to say no that wouldn’t seem cruel after her plea. And naturally, it was Bea that finally gave a sigh and asked “Did you bring any wood?”

* * *

“This is the stupidest idea you’ve ever had” Bea groaned, finally succeeding with her third and final attempt of hauling Mae’s cooler up onto the dome of the water tower.

God this was stupid. God they were high up. Everything about this was dumb. Someone was going to die tonight on this thing. Or off this thing, I guess.

Mae brushed the idea aside, currently laying on her stomach in front of the pile of wood they’d managed to build up in the middle of all of them. That, and trying her absolute best to make Bea’s lighter work to no avail. “You’re exaggerating, I’ve had way stupider ideas than this”

“I bet I’ve had stupider” Gregg proclaimed.

“You want to have a stupid off?” Mae asked, sitting up.

Bea snatched her lighter from Mae’s hand, and flicked it on with one smooth, ever familiar motion. “No, no stupid off. I don’t need a headache while we’re this high up”

“Are you guys going to whine about this all night? I brought you food! I brought holiday cheer!” Mae asked, rolling her eyes.

Bea went about both lighting them a fire from the log pile, then doing her best to stoke it with the… limited resources. “You brought bacon, marshmallows, and sausages”

“Also this potato!” Mae yelled, holding up the solitary brown lump she’d pulled from the cooler. “I love baked potatoes, but I don’t really know if we’ll be able to bake it right with just sticks. The other stuff should be fine though”

That said, she turned over the rest of the cooler and let its contents slide out. As Bea had said, it was two wrapped packages each of bacon, sausages, and marshmallows, along with a pile of snow Mae had apparently thought to fill with the cooler with. When something glass sounding began to tip out as well, Mae hastily turned the cooler back over and shut its top.

Gregg however seemed to have noticed Angus sitting far quieter than the others, and asked “You alright Cap’n?”

Angus nodded silently, though his heavy breathing gave away his discomfort. “Just… need a minute” he wheezed.

Maybe he was just scared. It was probably the asthma too, but even Mae felt her stomach churning when she looked down.

Okay, time to be a good host. A good food host. Mae took a few from the pile of available sticks and held them out to everyone with one hand while using her teeth and her other hand to try and tear open the bag of marshmallows.

Bea was the first to break the silence, grabbing one of the offered sticks. “I seriously can’t believe we’re up here. If I fall and break my neck I’m haunting the crap out of you”

Angus shrugged and did the same. “Same”

Mae tossed the last spare to Gregg who caught it out of the air, then went about trying to wrap raw bacon around the end of her own stick for roasting. God, bacon did not like to cooperate with her. ”You believe in ghosts, Angus?”

Even Gregg’s eyes fell on Angus at that one, but the big guy himself just shrugged. “Not really, but as long as we’re talking about it I figure if I become a ghost I’ll haunt you too for getting me killed”

Mae, in the middle of glaring at her stick, finally conceded and stabbed it through her bacon strip. “Aw dude, you should haunt Gregg”

“Yeah dude, you should totally haunt me” Gregg nodded along, doing a similar action with a mini sausage. “Who else is gonna make those brownies of yours?”

Angus thought it over just a moment. “I don’t think you get to pick who you haunt. It just sorta happens to whoever you’re mad at when you die. Otherwise everyone would just haunt famous people”

“Maybe that’s why there’s so many crazy famous people. What if I just hang out with Gregg more so you could haunt both of us?” Mae asked. She then shoved the entire tip of her stick into the fire itself, let it sit there for a moment, then pulled it out still glaring at it.

Angus gave a light smile and grabbed the bag of marshmallows in the meanwhile. “Thanks Mae, I’d appreciate that”

“How long do you think this a gonna take?” Mae asked to no one in particular, holding up her stick.

“Over an open fire? Give it a minute or two” Bea said. She’d so far stuck with the marshmallows and had actually had success with them.

Mae gave a huff of disappointment and went back to staring at the strip on the end of her stick. “So you’re gonna haunt me too then?”

Bea shrugged. “I dunno. I guess if we’re going by whoever I’m mad at then I’d haunt a lot of people”

Mae gave a light, accusing smirk. “Sounds like a lot of work”

“Only you could turn haunting people into a full time job” Gregg added, following Mae’s train of thought.

“What about you?” Bea asked, deflecting back into Mae.

Mae shrugged, glared at her bacon strip again, then pulled it in to nibble on it. It wasn’t exactly crispy how she liked but she wasn’t going to complain as long as it was edible. “I don’t know. Like, coming up here was my idea so I guess I’d just be mad at me?”

“I bet that’s how those ghosts are made that are just stuck in one place and can’t move on” Gregg said.

“Ugh. God that sucks, I don’t want to be stuck haunting the Possum Springs water tower forever. I’d die of boredom all over again”

Angus shrugged. “Well if anyone else tries climbing this thing I think you’ll get some company pretty soon” he explained. His marshmallow caught fire, but one quick huff extinguished it and revealed a perfectly roasted fluffball. Perks of being a scout. Probably.

Gregg was already thinking it over separately. “I don’t know who I’d haunt either. I guess Steve?”

Bea raised her attention back to the conversation. “Who’s Steve?”

Mae sat up attentively, now alert. “Oh eff yeah, I’m changing my answer to haunting Steve”

“Who’s Steve?” Bea asked again, to no explanation.

And so a hush fell over the group for a short while as they enjoyed their… Well it was difficult to call it a ‘meal’ anyway. Not that one could really complain with anything provided.

Good fire food, and the fire kept them warm despite the absolute wonderland of snow that was coating the rest of the town. If not for the hundreds of lights visible down in town, this would’ve felt like the comfiest place in the world.

Gregg eventually finished scarfing down a mouthful of unroasted marshmallows just to see if he could, then stretched himself out to relax once he was finished choking. “So now what?”

“Hmm” Mae glanced around. She hadn’t actually brought anything else, so… “Well now we look at the constellations like last time”

“‘Last time’?” Bea asked, eyebrow raised.

“I’m still sure that was a thing you dreamed up” Angus added.

“I dunno. It felt real” Mae explained. “I remember all you guys around a fire with me just like tonight, only… my butt wasn’t this cold, and Bea had a better attitude”

Gregg snickered, then shut up immediately upon receiving a glare from the girl in question. “Yeah, that was definitely a dream”

“You sure?”

“I haven’t spent a Longest Night with you in nine years, Mae” Bea said, curling her legs up and staring up at the stars.

“Oh. Right” Right. Right right right. Screwed That up. Mae similarly began staring at the stars, by moreso of for the excuse of not making eye contact. “Sorry about that”

“What happened with you two anyway?” Angus asked.

“Yeah Mae, what happened?” Bea asked as well in a rather accusing tone.

Mae groaned. This was going to ruin the whole night. “Man, I don’t know”

“Well you started hanging out with me instead, right?” Gregg added.

“So what, Gregg was just more fun?” Bea snarked.

“I don’t know why I did it, okay?” Mae said. And immediately felt bad. That just made it worse, ‘cause then… it definitely wasn’t a good reason. “Sorry”

Bea gave a deep breath. It was years ago. Couldn’t be sour forever. “It’s alright”

Well, if the point of that conversation had been to bum them out, it worked.

But it  _ did _ remind Mae of a particular event that had her grinning… “Hey Gregg, remember when we dated?”

Angus, naturally, was first at attention. “You guys dated?”

Gregg chuckled along. “Oh yeah, I barely remember that”

“Really? I thought it was fun” Mae asked, mock hurt.

“It was for like six hours” Gregg explained to the others.

“Six  _ fun _ hours”

“How long ago was this?” Angus asked.

Gregg shrugged. “When we were like twelve I think?”

“Back when Gregg was like…” Mae started. Touchy subject, but Gregg himself jumped in.

“Figuring myself out. Mae’s the only girl I hung out with”

Mae shook her head disappointedly. “I  _ really _ tried, but if he didn’t fall for me what hope did he have?”

“She’s… definitely a catch. I guess” Bea added, smirking.

Gregg scooched over into Angus’s side. “It’s alright dude. I’m happy now”

“That’s all that matters” Mae tried to do the same with Bea, who immediately held an arm and kept her from coming any closer than it.

”So like… kiss and everything?” Angus asked, pulled Gregg in with an arm around his shoulder.

Aaaand just like that Gregg had a look like his life was flashing before his eyes. “No way dude, Mae bites”

“Oh, yeah. That’s true” Bea nodded along.

Mae grabbed her discarded roasting stick and waved it harmlessly at the others. “I don’t bite! Why does everyone think I bite?”

“Dude you totally bite people. I’ve seen it. Remember prom?” Gregg said, reaching for his own with his free hand and ‘sword’fighting with Mae over the fire between them.

”Also there was that time you were sent home from school…” Angus went on.

“Which time?”

”The first one. The bad one”

”Left me with a scar…” Bea added, rubbing a hand over her sleeve.

Angus raised an eyebrow. “Mae bit you?”

“I/She fell in a river” Mae and Bea answered simultaneously. Then they shared a look, and both went back to their respective ignoring of each other.

Angus only looked more confused, though. Gregg clapped his hands together “Oh yeah I remember that!”

“You know who bites? You guys. You can all bite me” Mae said, ending with sticking her tongue out at them as was natural for a lady such as she.

Bat rolled her eyes while the others went about snarking at each other. She gave a glance to the sky above. Constellations… she wasn’t great with them exactly. But...

“So… I know that one’s a fish” She said, pointing.

“I knew that one too” Mae confirmed, nodding.

“How did you do so bad in science class and know so much about space?” Gregg asked.

Mae shook her head. “Not space, just constellations. And because they’re rad as hell”

“Actually yeah, how  _ did _ you get into college?” Bea asked. “You need actually decent grades besides just the money”

“Tried my ass off. Didn’t want… ugh, nevermind” Mae said, shrugging and quickly ending the thought. Then she went back to staring at the stars, if only to avoid any further exploration into this.

Bea finally scooched herself over, jabbing Mae’s side with her finger. “Come on, I have to hear this”

“Is it personal?” Angus asked.

“A little? I guess” Mae mumbled. God, it sounded stupid when she thought about it. “I just… I didn’t want my mom to cry anymore. After the incident”

And silence fell over the group. Okay. Yeah.

“I’d say that’s pretty personal” Gregg concluded.

Angus put on his best reassuring father figure voice and spoke “You did good, Mae”

“Yeah well, I’m back now” Mae said, shrugging.

“Well…” Bea started. “I don’t think anyone’s complaining”

Mae smirked. Hard to feel depressed with these guys around. “‘Course not. I’m a force of joy wherever I go. Like a superhero”

“You’re definitely a super something” Bea snickered to herself.

Gregg leaned in so he could reach his stick over the fire and poke at Mae directly. Despite her attempts at backing up, she didn’t actually want to slide off the dome, and Gregg was just plain good at stabbing things at her.

Also, with anyone else that probably would have been a sexual innuendo.

“Speaking of college, did that fade there or what?” He asked.

“What?”

He gave a sudden thrust with it, parting the tuft of red hair on Mae’s head. “Your hair”

“Oh right, I kinda forgot how red it used to be” Bea added. She swatted Gregg’s stick away, then took hold of Mae’s head to tilt it and get a clear look at the tuft of faded red. “I’m pretty sure it was still red back when I met you when we were like… god, were we six?"

“I was fashionable even then” Mae said, hands on her hips. She was trying to look cool about it, but the whole having her head tilted kinda ruined it. “But nah. I wanted red hair when I was really little and grandad was all for it, so he helped me dye it. And he kept doing that for years”

“And now?” Angus asked.

Mae shrugged, and shook herself free of Bea’s grip, running a hand through it to straighten the tuft again. “I don’t know how to do it myself”

“Dude, for a force of joy you’re seriously killing the mood tonight” Gregg said.

A toothy, vile grin appeared on Mae’s face. “I’m actually my own evil twin. I have the opposite power”

“Is your good twin employed?” Bea asked.

Mae shook her head and the grin disappeared with it. “Not anymore, I ate her. That’s why I’m such a good person on the inside”

“Nice” Bea smirked. She gave one more look over Mae’s head. “I’ll see what I can do about your hair maybe… tomorrow”

“I can help!” Angus chimed in.

Gregg was immediately clapping his hands together in excitement for the group activity. “Moral support, moral support!”

“You guys…” Mae mumbled. She curled her legs up in front of her to hug them close, smiling lightly. “I take it back. You don’t bite that much”

All of them shared a moment of silence. Less awkward this time, more just enjoying the moment. The fire didn’t do an amazing job at keeping them warm out in this weather, but for right now at least none of them felt like complaining.

At least, not complaining about the weather.

“So are we gonna talk about Mae all night or what?” Gregg snarked.

Mae grabbed hold of her stick again and tossed it over at him. “Fine, you go. Talk about you”

Angus swatted it out of the air with one quick move, though it was Gregg who was more panicking. “Oh god, you know I can’t deal with that kind of pressure”

“Actually, I need to know, are you guys gonna have babies?” Mae asked, drawing all eyes onto her if only for how out of the blue the question was. “Like adopt or something. I know you can’t do the thing with the… yeah”

“Where’s this coming from?” Bea asked.

“My mom wants me to have grandkids eventually” Mae explained, then looked over to Bea herself. “Beebee, you need to give me babies”

Gregg snorted, holding in a laugh, and Bea glared daggers at him for just a moment.

“Yeah, no, that’s gonna be a no. I wouldn’t trust you with a goldfish” she snarked.

Angus however was deep in thought on the subject. He had been since it was brought up at that. “I haven’t really thought about it. Not having to worry about making rent would be nice before we get to babies”

“I’m thinking three. We need two older boys so they can take care of their little sister” Gregg suddenly spoke up, slapping his hand on the dome they sat on.

“That’s actually kind of sweet” Bea nodded.

“They need to keep her out of jail. She’s totally gonna be robbing stores at thirteen” Gregg went on, snuggling in close with his boyfriend. Well Angus wasn’t objecting at least, so that probably meant it was okay.

“Aaaand there it goes…”

Though these naysayers weren’t enough to keep Gregg’s scheme quiet. “The oldest can be the muscle. The younger one has to be the getaway driver, ‘cause he needs to have a special defining role to boost his confidence since he’s the middle child”

“You know? I think I’m okay with not hearing any more than this” Bea went on.

Not that it made a difference to Mae who looked excited by the idea. “And I’m gonna be the old crotchety woman they come to when you die and they need to learn the old ways?”

Gregg nodded knowingly. Sagely. Truly they were  _ both _ old masters. “Naturally. Only I won’t have really died. It’s all an elaborate ruse”

Bea groaned. “Guys…”

“Too bad you didn’t get taken out by the mafia” Mae snarked, grinning.

“Enough”

“Too bad you didn’t get sucked back into one last job and get shot in action”

“Too bad you didn’t slip off the ladder coming up here”

“Too bad you didn’t catch on fire trying to cook that sausage”

Bea groaned about as loudly and obnoxiously as she could manage. “Too bad I’m not going to throw myself off the edge of this tower to get away from you two”

The two troublemakers of the group grinned at each other from across the fire, both making a silent agreement to continue this later on. And also probably break something. Depends where the mood brought them.

They settled in for a moment more, at least until Angus gave a mighty yawn from his mighty ever so squishy belly. A belly yawn, like only he could do. It was deep.

“How late is it?” He asked.

“Time for you to get a watch” Mae smirked at her own joke, then immediately went wide eyed. “Wait no I said that wrong”

Gregg stood up looking at the stars and moon as though trying to get a feel for what time it was. Not that anyone would stop him, but there was probably a better way. “For real though, we should probably be getting home”

Mae was up on her knees within a second, grabbing her cooler again. “Aww, guys!”

“Even Longest Night has to end eventually” Angus confirmed, standing as well. “Stay safe, guys”

“Wait wait wait I brought one more thing!” Mae yelled. She opened the cooler up again and dig out one last thing. A bottle, filled about two thirds of the way up with a soft pink liquid and a label on the front that was so stylized it was practically indecipherable.

“Hey, that’s mine!” Bea growled, leaning over to try to snatch it away.

Mae herself was leaning away holding it as far from Bea as she could. “You weren’t doing anything with it! And you were just sleeping yesterday and it was just sorta laying out, so-”

“It was on a shelf in my closet!”

“I had to use some boxes as a stepladder” Mae explained. Then she held it up again, waving it for Gregg and Angus. “For the holiday!”

Gregg and Angus exchanged looks, Gregg’s being ‘yes’ and Angus’s being ‘no, and don’t encourage her.’ “Thanks but no thanks, really have to head home” Angus explained.

Gregg gave a sigh, though not a grouchy enough one to argue. He turned and slid down off the dome, down onto the water tower’s railing.“See ya tomorrow dude!” He yelled back up.

“You know it!” Mae yelled after him as Angus did the same.

Then there was just the gentle tapping sounds of hands and shoes making their way down the ladder below them, and just the good ol’ MaeBea team hanging around on top of the water tower below the Longest Night sky.

“So. Just us again” Mae nodded.

“Seems to be a running theme” Bea shrugged. She shared a look with Mae… and Mae immediately undid the top on the bottle and tipped her head back to take a swig from it. “Stop drinking it!”

“We have to finish it eventually!” Mae sputtered out, having only gotten half a mouthful.

“Yeah, no. Not while we’re up here. I don’t feel like dying tonight”

“You’re just being a chicken. You didn’t have any last time either” Mae smirked, cradling the bottle. Then she went back to finish getting an actual mouthful from it while Bea watched.

“Hold up, did you just try to bait me into drinking by calling me a chicken? What, are we eight years old again?” Bea snarked. Mae mostly ignored this, only grinning with her lips still on the bottle. A knowing grin. Bea groaned, then leaned in and extended her hand. “Hand it here”

Mae finished her drink, then handed the bottle over to Bea “This stuff is the best” she said one she’d caught her breath.

Bea brought it to her lips for just a sip. Fruity. Freakishly fruity. “It’s really… not half bad” she mumbled. Then went back for more. Just a little more, mind you.

“You’ve gotta get Jackie to send you more”

Bea shrugged, then let go to the bottle as well and handed it back. “I don’t think Jackie’s going to be doing any favors for me any time soon”

“What, did she get mad you were dating me?” Mae asked, smirking. Then she went back for another swig, and got about halfway into it before spotting the avoiding look on Bea’s face. “You didn’t tell her?”

“You didn’t tell anyone either!”

“I told everyone who asked!”

“That’s not a normal thing people ask, Mae” Bea growled. “You’ve been… okay, explain this. When you asked me, you said things would just be like always, but you’ve been freakishly... romantic lately. Or your version of romance, I guess”

Mae finished her drink, then handed it back for Bea’s turn, choosing to look coyly at the fire instead.“Yeah. Sorry”

“Why?” Bea asked, then started on her turn. It helped knowing she wouldn’t have to work tomorrow.

“I don’t know! I don’t know what I’m doing” Mae explained ever so erratically. “I’ve never had a boyfriend that lasted more than like a day. I just like… I don’t want to screw this up” She went on, falling quiet. Bea finished her swig, made eye contact, then went back to sipping. Mae glared, then mumbled a pathetic “I can’t mess this up. I like you”

“Yeah. I know” Bea said between breaths, then offering the bottle back over.

Mae stared. Bea offered it again. Mae repeated “I like you”

“Yeah. I said I know”

“Beebee”

“Yeah?”

“I. Like. You”

“I. Know”

Mae glared again, Bea stared with her arm outstretched, and finally Mae sighed and snatched the offered bottle from Bea’s hand. “You suck”

“What do you want from me?” Bea asked.

Mae shrugged, then went back to drinking. There wasn’t actually much left by now. This stuff tasting like juice probably didn’t help with how much they drank just to keep the conversation going. Finally she gasped out with the bottle newly empty. “Do you want this back?”

“Kinda useless now”

Well, good enough for her. Mae wound back, and threw the bottle as hard as she could off into the night. The combination of being this high up and the snow on the ground below meant she didn’t get to hear it shatter, which only worsened things.

Mae stood and marched over to Bea’s side. Naturally Bea’s life flashed before her eyes, and it was very meh, but thankfully in this situation Mae was just plopping herself down.

“Hey wait, don’t don’t don’t-” And despite Bea’s protests, Mae’s head came right down in her lap. Again. And a stabbing pain shot up from Bea’s right leg, one she has to suppress for the moment. “Right on my keys” she hissed.

“It’s been a weird week” Mae mumbled, staring up past Bea at the stars.

Bea nodded along, taking a deep breath to let herself calm down. “You already said that”

“Yeah but it’s still true” Mae said. She shut her eyes to enjoy the moment. “Thanks for-”

“Hold on, why do you keep doing this?” Bea asked, half considering shoving Mae’s head off her lap.

“Is it a problem?” Mae asked. She peeked one eye open.

“Just a little weird”

Mae half-shrugged, or as close to it as she could in this position. “I’m being cute. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed Beatrice but I’m freaking adorable. This is now our thing” She explained. Then she met Bea’s gaze, waiting expectantly. And after another inactive moment said “Scratch my head”

Bea rolled her eyes, but did so obediently. “Our… thing”

“Yeah. Our cute couple thing” Mae nodded along. “Gotta have one. Like how Gregg and Angus do their thing where they snuggle up like two bugs in a love rug”

“Huh. Alright, sure. Pretty sure that’s just them snuggling but sure”

“Thanks for coming out here with me tonight”

“You act like I had a choice. I’m kinda stuck with you now as long as I’m jobless” Bea snarked.

“It was my master plan all alon- ow ow ow okay okay sorry” Mae’s evildoing came to a quick end as Bea tugged on her hair, just to make her get to the point. “‘Cause now we’ve got this memory, right? And it’s a good one. Like, real good. Nothing’s gonna top this for a long time”

“Well, you sure know how… how, uh…” Bea started.

Then, she hesitated. She blinked. Looked like she’d been blinded, though by what was uncertain. Mae sat up and looked off the side of the water tower down where Bea was looking, and found the light of a flashlight pointed up perfectly to meet her retinas.

“Evening, ladies!” A ever familiar voice yelled up.

Mae then gave out the loudest “Uuuuugh!” She’d ever mustered in her life.

Bea meanwhile was busy covering her face with her hand, sighing out “God. Dammit”

Mae yelled down “Don’t you have a kitten to save from a tree somewhere?” To her Aunt.

Aunt Mall Cop, as Mae loved to call her, yelled back up “Not tonight I’m afraid! Just a few reports from a fire on top of the water tower!”

“Pure silliness!” Mae responded.

“Get down here, Mae!” Molly yelled up.

“Not too late to throw ourselves to our death. Suicide pact?” Mae whispered, only for Bea to immediately slide off the dome of the water tower down onto the walkway, and start making her way down the ladder. “You coward!” Mae yelled after her.

Damn. Damn damn damn.

Ugh, fine. Whatever. Just like Aunt Mall Cop to come ruin the holidays.

“Just warning you I’m super drunk, so if I die falling off this it’s on your head!” Mae yelled down again. She glanced at her cooler, and tipped it over one last time so all of the snow she’d piled into it fully landed on and extinguished their fire.

She considered also tossing the thing off since she was definitely not carrying it down with her, but then Aunt Mall Cop was just going to start yelling and it’d be a whole big thing.

“Actually you’ll land on my head, so hold on tight!” Bea called up to her.

“Yeah, yeah…” Mae mumbled to herself. She gave the cooler a kick, and it slid down off the dome where it landed stuck securely in the surrounding railing. Yeah that was probably a good spot. Now it was part of history.

Several grueling minutes of climbing later and the two were back safely on not so dry land. Not that it stopped Mae from stumbling once she’d set down now that her peachy stomach was coming back for revenge. That and probably being about to be arrested didn’t make for a good end to the night either.

“She alright?” Aunt Molly asked, looking Mae over. When Bea opened her mouth to speak, Aunt Molly aimed her flashlight at her face instead, looking far more surprised but no less pleased. “Are  _ you _ alright?” She asked.

“We… please stop that” Bea groaned, holding a hand up over her eyes.

Aunt Molly clicked her flashlight off. “I expect better from you, Bea”

“Yeah well I expect cops to not show up ruining our holidays, but here we are” Mae snarked back, gaining a glare from her Aunt… which she responded to by sticking her tongue out. She wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it.

“Well you’re lucky it’s a holiday, Mae. Or you’d be spending the night in jail” Officer Molly responded. Then she turned away from them, wandering a few steps over to quietly talk into her walkie.

Mae’s ears had fallen flat in complete disappointment. Like, of course. Things couldn’t just be easy. Something had to go wrong. “Sorry” She whispered to Bea.

Bea shrugged and quietly waited for them to be ordered to follow along. She gave a glance to her ever short, so very trying girlfriend, and finally sighed. She grabbed Mae by the chin to lift her gaze up and planted one quick kiss on her lips. Just a quick one. Just a peck. Nothing special. Shut the hell up.

“You’re doing fine. I had a good night, Mae” She whispered. Then she was back to standing at attention while Mae meanwhile was looking completely awestruck. Aunt Molly glanced back over, and finally waved for them to follow along. “Come on. Before you get us into any more trouble” Bea said, and began following Mae’s aunt back through the woods.

Mae remained at the base of the water tower, her brain taking its sweet time to restart. It really wasn’t fair considering how little she used her brain. Couldn’t just pull stunts like that, it was dangerous.

Finally she did snap back to reality though, and as she started running to catch up with them, her first thought was to yell “Gaaaaaaay!” mockingly.

“What?” Aunt Molly asked.

“None of your business, Scrooge!”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's that picture I mentioned. I also mentioned when I first got it that Mae is adorably small in it.
> 
> There's too many things to talk about in retrospect, so I probably won't get to anything, really.
> 
> This was a fun story to write. Very different from The Perfect Storm. It felt like the plot was very direct in that one, there was a very clear outlying problem. A conflict to be overcome. This one was just... people being people, having people problems with other people. It felt like a nice change of pace. Felt a lot more Night in the Woods.
> 
> So what's next? No idea. Haven't even decided if I want to do another story. Pretty happy with The Perfect Storm. Not as happy with this one, but glad I did it. Wouldn't want to make a sequel for sequel's sake. I have a lot of ideas I shoved under the rug from both stories that I want to finish using up, but again I'm not going to make an entire nother story just for the excuse. January... what is there to work with in January? Got an idea or two. I'll see what happens.


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